2019 | oil on canvas | canvas size 47 x 39 cm | 18.5” x 15.35” | with frame 80 x 70.5 cm | 31.5" x 27.75"
2019 | oil on canvas | canvas size 47 x 39 cm | 18.5” x 15.35” | with frame 80 x 70.5 cm | 31.5" x 27.75"
2019 | oil on canvas | canvas size 47 x 39 cm | 18.5” x 15.35” | with frame 80 x 70.5 cm | 31.5" x 27.75"
OEDIPUS
2019 | oil on canvas | canvas size 47 x 39 cm | 18.5” x 15.35” | with frame 80 x 70.5 cm | 31.5" x 27.75" each
Having believed to be the heir of a shining throne, Oedipus suddenly finds himself as the center of a frightening prophecy that he subsequently seeks to escape from; he flees his alleged father, and kills his real father on the way; he flees his alleged mother, in order not to marry her, and marries his real mother instead; he solves the sphinx’s riddle, but remains in the dark about the mystery of his own existence; he strives for good, and creates evil; he acts by the rules of reason, but gets tangled up in confusion; whenever he comes across something right, he fails to see it and he misinterprets every word of the oracle, every benevolent advice accelerates his doom.
« For he removed from her garment the golden
brooches which she was wearing; he lifted them
and struck the sockets of his own eyes,
shouting that they would not see either the evils
he had suffered or the evils he had done,
now only in darkness could they see those whom
they must not see, in darkness could they mistake
those whom they wanted to recognize »
2019 | oil on canvas | canvas size 47 x 39 cm | 18.5” x 15.35” | with frame 80 x 70.5 cm | 31.5" x 27.75"
2019 | oil on canvas | canvas size 47 x 39 cm | 18.5” x 15.35” | with frame 80 x 70.5 cm | 31.5" x 27.75"
2019 | oil on canvas | canvas size 47 x 39 cm | 18.5” x 15.35” | with frame 80 x 70.5 cm | 31.5" x 27.75"
The ancient story of the king of Thebes has been rediscovered in more recent centuries as part of Sophokle’s Trilogy, encompassing the plays Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King), Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. Oedipus, who famously solved the riddle of the sphinx, sought to escape his destiny and unknowingly fulfilled it in the process. His tale’s moral is that of many greek tragedies, reminding humans of the superiority of the gods and the pointlessness of wanting to escape one’s own fate.
In the beginning of the first play, Oedipus the King, the protagonist weens himself safe and confident, having not only fled and saved his foster parents from their alleged doom but has coincidentally also become the king of another kingdom. He thinks himself above his fate, having successfully prevented it, only to find out he had stepped right into it. Ignoring the warnings of the people around him, the ones in the know about him, his origin and his fate, he unwillingly exposes himself as the murderer of his father, the king he replaced, and the consort of his mother, the queen whose hand he was granted after having freed the city from the curse of the Sphinx. Angrily, upon having been insulted by Oedipus and accused of juggling, does the clairvoyant bard Teiresias predict the king’s future: blind as he already is for the wrongs he has committed, will he soon, like Teiresias himself, be physically blind as well.
In Oedipus at Colonus he is introduced to the audience again. Fast forwarded into the future, the former king is now an old man, cast out, wandering the landscape, still physically blind, he has gained the wisdom of age and the gift of prophecy, as had the bard Teiresias before him. He is ready to bow to his destiny and repent for his sins. He meets his death, sheltered by king Theseus and in the company of his daughters Ismene and Antigone, having become a blessing to the Athenians as opposed to the curse he had been to Thebes.
The two paintings named after the two tragedies depict two stages of a lunar eclipse over central Europe in July 2018. In the first painting, Oedipus the King, we see the beginning of the lunar eclipse, where the moon, slowly rising, has for the most part already been covered by the shadow of the earth. The red of the low rising moon, darkened by the shadow, reminds of how Oedipus, upon discovering his frivolous deed against his father and the fact that he had married and fathered children with his mother, took the pins off the dress of his wife, whom he had just found hung upon a string in their bed-chamber, to continuously stabs his eyeballs with them:
« Repeating these things, many times and not once
only he raised his hands and struck his eyes. At once
his bloody eyeballs moistened his cheeks.
In torrent together flowed the drops of blood;
all at once a dark storm of blood like hail rained down »
It is only in the sequel Oedipus at Colonus, where the audience finds out about the anguish and self-hatred he had endured in the Theban palace right after the events in the first play, where he was at his lowest, until ultimately he was exiled by his own son. At an old age is he now wandering Greece, and though still surrounded by the darkness of his blinded eyes, he has now gained the ability to see fate and future. The moon slowly reappearing as the shadow of the earth moves, makes place for the light of the sun illuminating the moons surface. The sun has in ancient times been associated with Apollo, the god of prophecy, the same who has once revealed the curse who brought Oedipus to fall is now the one bestowing him with the light of revelation and prophetic skill. The paintings have each been given the subtitle referring to the date of the beginning and the end of the eclipse, to reveal the two stages of the eclipse that they depict. The main titles are referencing which one of the plays each painting is assigned to. The ascending star moving along with the moon is a reference to Oedipus daughter Antigone, who’s story unwraps in the last play of the same name and concludes the trilogy.
The authentic 19th century gilded stucco frames that were chosen for the paintings have been hung into black contemporary floating frames, creating a double-framing. This has been for both aesthetic and practical reasons. While the floating frames make it easier to incorporate the paintings into a modern interior, their black colour also allows for the colours in the painting to appear more light and vibrant. Since primarily dark colours have been used in the paintings, the contrast created by having them hung against a common white wall would compromise the perception of the palette.