Wednesday, October 1

"As you try to explain me I will spit you, yellow, out of my mouth."

The following connection was made by Zander Blom himself, after a trip down to the coast and a New Year's Eve of excess; Jaco Venter plays the role of the good Samaritan. After seeing the image for the first time, Zander referenced Saturn Devouring One of His Children, from one of his books on Goya's work... the tilt of the head, the position of the arm, the arc of the lip...



Zander has come to like the image so much he has put it forward as a portrait for certain press interviews; it is one of many candids and portraits I have of Zander over the years, along with other references, possibly conceits, taken directly from my notes:

First work with Zander, producing works under pseudonym "Lez Black"... Current work in preparation for exhibition features "monsters" and quasi-satanic images amongst others... installations and murals directly onto the walls and ceilings of Zander's Brixton home and studio... work is "transferred" to photographs, then dismantled or reworked... a similar approach was seen in last exhibition The Drain of Progress...


Saturn Devouring One of His Children is one of 14 "black paintings" so named for their "dark tones and preponderance of black", originally on the walls of Quinta del Sordo (House of the Deaf Man). Goya was left deaf after battling serious illness, apparently feared a relapse and this tension began to show in his work and technique... these last paintings are know for their disturbing subject matter, this reference to the Greek myth of Cronus in particular. He may have been influenced by another painting, Ruben's 1636 painting of the same name... Goya never named these paintings though; others did after his death. The must have been finished by 17 September 1823, as he donated the house to his 17-year-old grandson and then went into hiding. The murals spent 70 years deteriorating on the walls of the house when the then owner allowed them to be transferred to canvas under the direction of Salvador Martinez Cubells, the curator of the Museo del Prado in Madrid, where they are today.

The work has been described by Fred Licht as "essential to our understanding of the human condition in modern times, just as Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling is essential to understanding the tenor of the 16th century".

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