This work use shades of color and light in the forest interior painting. Vincent walked into the forest for a close view. The painting evokes the trees and grassy undergrowth, the sky is barely visible, just a glimpse of sky sometimes penetrating the branches.
From the perspective of the forest A Rye Field by Ivan Shishkin evokes an ambiguous feeling. This is a great work of art, that in the first place. It contains artistically beauty, power and mystery in one.
The powerful pines and the endless fields of golden corn give the viewer a colour palette, detail and dimension with a great realistic and an almost 3-dimensional experience. As if one is on the place of action, 142 years back in time, somewhere in a vast Russian landscape, in another time and in another life.
The second mind comes in though, that from forest and true ecological perspective. As if I was the forest, speaking out. Was this painting an early warning that humans were aiming and heading to took all of the land, for rhymes and reasons, and destroy the sheer beauty of the forest ecosystem and all lives within it? Sure it was.
This painting really evokes two moods: that of romantic view and sheer beauty of composition, colour and craftsmanship and that of great loss at the same time.
Strange what history can do with perception and judgement. At least mine. The message of ‘Rye’ is more actual than ever. This painting should be a constant reminder of our not sustainable and therefor simplistic way of thinking. We can do better than this.
Bibliography
Shishkin, Ivan (1878) Rye [Oil on canvas]. Moscow: The Tretyakov Gallery.
Reading the Global Risks Report 2020 of the World Economic Forum last week and quietly listening to all the presentations, I went back to my trusted base, platform, home… the piano, with François Couperin. On this late winter afternoon I imagined that my left hand played the system world and my right the living world. Les ombres errantes is actually as it should be.
With this architectural masterpiece in mind we should go back to the drawing table and redesign how we, the world, manage ourselves to a new harmony, with full respect for all other species and natural ecosystems from which we developed. Mother Earth, our root system.
Børge Brende, President, World Economic Forum: ”On the environment, we note with grave concern the consequences of continued environmental degradation, including the record pace of species decline. Respondents to our Global Risks Perception Survey are also sounding the alarm, ranking climate change and related environmental issues as the top five risks in terms of likelihood—the first time in the survey’s history that one category has occupied all five of the top spots.”
How can we forget? We can not continue this way! The report has a huge impact on me, that I know. François gives me a moment of relaxation, and by this of inspiration to rethink, to reflect, to re-prepare, to re-energize, to re-create, to re-select, to re-elect and to re-mark. Left and right hand as one, connecting ratio and creativity. Back to the drawing table.
Kruf Huyssons 