Art Blogs
15.03.2015
“It was not done by me, it happened within myself”
St. Augustine (IV century)
These words of Saint Augustine are treated by Omar Chkhaidze, an artist, as a key to understanding the source of his own artwork, which he sees as an inspiration coming from above. All his creations are the reflection of deep meanings rooted in the interaction of spiritual fundamentals of the author himself with the universal spirituality. The leading role is played by the processes going on in the subconsciousness. “My paintings are myself, my reality, which is created in harmony of soul and mind”, - says the artist.
For Omar Chkhaidze, painting is a projection of spiritual world’s images upon canvas. The basic guideline of his creative world outlook is the priority of Light as the leading life-giving element. Light, for him, is not a physical phenomenon, but a metaphysical substance. He sees this spiritual Light, he lives in this Light, and he’s been painting this Light for more than fifty years. This is his reality, that is why he positions himself as a realist in painting, to be more precise – a metaphysical realist.
In the middle of the 60s, XX century, a quite young, beginning master seems to embrace the unembraceable in most various aesthetics. Some are more traditionally, though individually, formalized, others immediately declare the breakthrough into another reality. The “light-forming” principle, when the image-bearing background of the picture is created purely by the game of light specks and flashes, will be one of the major principles in Omar Chkhaidze’s self-expression through many years. Nobody among painters ever worked with light this way. A number of works done in this manner, due to its aesthetic attractiveness, is extremely important to understand the global targets put forward by the artist. They became the threshold of a new direction in the artist’s activity, associated with the search for self-expression through various forms of objectless art.
It is obvious, the complete freedom of self-expression is very important for Omar Chkhaidze. To reflect luminosity he uses most various tools. This is principally important. He is also very profound and diversified in his world views. Numerous philosophical, religious and esoteric systems have been studied, but none of them has become absolute for him. The artist’s own judgment of reality is based upon diversified and multi-aspect experience accumulated by the mankind. Artwork for him is the same philosophy represented through visual images.
Omar Chkhaidze has actually repeated the path of the first avant-garde abstractionists. He develops “clear language” of painting making a start from their experience. But it is a common knowledge, that in art the attentive disciples of the past became the main innovators. The artist’s latest works of 2005 - 2015 show that the era of neoplasticism and suprematism began in 1910s – 1920s by Mondrian and Malevich, as well as pangeometric traditions which lasted in art for ages, have been finished. He paints “Out into Light”, goes out into “transcendental zero”, begins to paint only the substance, only the vibration of spiritual Light, and creates a new aesthetics in the art of painting – the aesthetics of Light.
Any question please e-Mail : gallery@Gallery-OmarChkhaidze.com
“It was not done by me, it happened within myself”
St. Augustine (IV century)
These words of Saint Augustine are treated by Omar Chkhaidze, an artist, as a key to understanding the source of his own artwork, which he sees as an inspiration coming from above. All his creations are the reflection of deep meanings rooted in the interaction of spiritual fundamentals of the author himself with the universal spirituality. The leading role is played by the processes going on in the subconsciousness. “My paintings are myself, my reality, which is created in harmony of soul and mind”, - says the artist.
For Omar Chkhaidze, painting is a projection of spiritual world’s images upon canvas. The basic guideline of his creative world outlook is the priority of Light as the leading life-giving element. Light, for him, is not a physical phenomenon, but a metaphysical substance. He sees this spiritual Light, he lives in this Light, and he’s been painting this Light for more than fifty years. This is his reality, that is why he positions himself as a realist in painting, to be more precise – a metaphysical realist.
In the middle of the 60s, XX century, a quite young, beginning master seems to embrace the unembraceable in most various aesthetics. Some are more traditionally, though individually, formalized, others immediately declare the breakthrough into another reality. The “light-forming” principle, when the image-bearing background of the picture is created purely by the game of light specks and flashes, will be one of the major principles in Omar Chkhaidze’s self-expression through many years. Nobody among painters ever worked with light this way. A number of works done in this manner, due to its aesthetic attractiveness, is extremely important to understand the global targets put forward by the artist. They became the threshold of a new direction in the artist’s activity, associated with the search for self-expression through various forms of objectless art.
It is obvious, the complete freedom of self-expression is very important for Omar Chkhaidze. To reflect luminosity he uses most various tools. This is principally important. He is also very profound and diversified in his world views. Numerous philosophical, religious and esoteric systems have been studied, but none of them has become absolute for him. The artist’s own judgment of reality is based upon diversified and multi-aspect experience accumulated by the mankind. Artwork for him is the same philosophy represented through visual images.
Omar Chkhaidze has actually repeated the path of the first avant-garde abstractionists. He develops “clear language” of painting making a start from their experience. But it is a common knowledge, that in art the attentive disciples of the past became the main innovators. The artist’s latest works of 2005 - 2015 show that the era of neoplasticism and suprematism began in 1910s – 1920s by Mondrian and Malevich, as well as pangeometric traditions which lasted in art for ages, have been finished. He paints “Out into Light”, goes out into “transcendental zero”, begins to paint only the substance, only the vibration of spiritual Light, and creates a new aesthetics in the art of painting – the aesthetics of Light.
Olga Petrova,
Ph.D., Professor
Ph.D., Professor
Any question please e-Mail : gallery@Gallery-OmarChkhaidze.com
