Thursday, August 15th from 6 to 8 pm: Reception for the Artist in Residence<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nikola Pijanmanov\u2019s art expresses his \u201cPhilosophy of Life\u201d which naturally incorporates his vocation as an academic painter. Thematically, Pijanmanov resists the currents of the contemporary world:most of his works explore religious, and even Biblical, subjects. This exposes him to charges of being concerned with outmoded questions, something of which Pijanmanov is fully aware. He takes it into account in his work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For him. there can never be \u201coutmoded\u201d art; on the contrary, art\u2019s greater danger is an \u201cephemeral trending\u201d. From a chronological perspective, the quality of an artist\u2019s output mayonly be judged over time. Generations in the decades, and even centuries to come will be the ones to assess how deserving his oeuvre is of the epithet of \u201cart\u201d. In the meantime, the artists\u2019 task is simply to commit to the creative work at hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Biblical perspective in Pijanmanov\u2019s paintings isanything but monothematic. It is informed by the polythematic interests of the artist. Literature, music, film, Theology, Philosophy, as well as the works of other artists all play an intertextual part work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the case with the paintings assembled for the exhibition \u201cAdam\u2019s Cry\u201d. The titles of the exhibition, the works, as well as the subject matter, represent a kind of manifesto for the \u201ccondition of humanity.\u201dAdam is the archetype of all who have lived, are living and will live.Their common denominator for all, whether born in the past, present or future, is death. Betweenbirth and deathstands the line-segment of life. The Condition of humanity\u201d is actually the\u201ccondition of human life\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
HUMANITY\u2019S CONDITION<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How then do we see this exhibition portraying this condition? Seven of the twelve paintings share titles with the exhibition. Adam is shown to be in despair. Borrowing elements from expressionism and of contemporary figurative art, Pijanmanov uses broad strokes, decisive and expressive. Red and purple dominate while the tones are dark and with a strong contrast, suggesting profound, introspective emotions. The amalgam of style, technique and palette depicts pain, suffering, exclusion, sorrow, inconsolability, and unforgiveness. Adam is captured in dramatic postures or movements which convey the stress and agonies of an existential crisis. They testify to Pijanmanov\u2019s creative imagination and skill, as well as his broad erudition. Although the human figures are stylized, elongated, distorted and exaggerated, there is enough realism in them to detect the described strong emotions. It can be said that all art depicting human subjects, the sensible in the paintings is in service of the intelligible. In Pijanmanov\u2019s art this is especially emphasized. Through the physical, Pijanmanov accents psychological reality. The body expresses the state of the soul, and the face the state of the mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Human figures dominate the works\u2019 composition, such thatthere is little background to distract. The viewer is invited to enter the psychological condition of the subject matter. However, the works also represent a cry for help. They depict isolation and alienation, but most of all claustrophobia. The figures are ensnared and imprisoned. The question is thus provoked: can there be an escape?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus the great anthropological questions of human significance are posed.Pijanmanov\u2019s paintings confront human vulnerability, which he demonstrates do not simply affect the impoverished majority but the entire human race. However, he insists that amid humanity\u2019s existential uncertainty, there remains one universal certainty:mortality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
SHAME<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pijanmanov\u2019s expressionism and figuration evoke the works of Francis Bacon, Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele, Amedeo Modigliani, and Frida Kahlo. However Pijanmanov never suggests an ontological or an eschatological appeasement with the real condition of humanity. Pijanmanov rejects nihilistic existentialism. Adam for Pijanmanov is no mere mythologicalarchetype or metaphor for the collective humanity. He is the first man created in the image of God. The fall of Adam into sin injects tragedyinto the human condition, as is confirmed by the other paintings in the show. We see in them a state of shame and traumatic waiting. The impression is rounded by the painting entitled \u201cFallen Angel\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Feeling of shame is not popular today. But it marks our ancestors\u2019 first realisation after the Fall that they are naked. According to the Bible the first emotion after the fall into sin is shame. It is precisely Pijanmanov\u2019s composition that directs to this primordial feeling putting the palms over the face of the figure. In this way the author creates a focal point that \u201cteases\u201d the gaze of the viewers. The impression is strengthened by the quick strokes of the brush giving to the static figure a dynamic feeling of a movement just finished. Specifically, because shame is linked with sight, the palms concealing the face dramatically evoke the recognition of nakedness. Dark shadows of black of purple dominate the background; and yet simultaneouslythe palms are lit up with the warm sun colors of red, orange and yellow. By contrasting these with white evoking rawness and vulnerability, Pijanmanov captures the anthropological paradox.Amid the pain, there is intimacy and hope. Having in mind the Biblically inspired themes, hope is hope for redemption of the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
WAITING<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Waiting in hope for redemption is an important part of New Testament\u2019s eschatology. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says, \u201cBut the one who endures to the end will be saved\u201d. However this \u201cendurance\u201d does not mean a passive acceptance of the current condition of the fallen humanity. Evangelist Luke writes about the beginning of Jesus Christ\u2019s public ministry with the following words, \u201cThe Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed meto proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captivesand recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. \u201dThe \u2018waiting\u2019 pictures\u2014”In the Waiting Room,\u201d \u201cEternal Waiting\u201d, and \u201cThe Man Who is Waiting\u201d\u2014offer a critique of a world in which there are still those who are poor, captive, blind and oppressed. In that context the artist himself for \u201cAdam\u2019s Cry\u201d as a whole writes, \u201cIf the old Adam was waiting in the desert of the paradise lost and was crying for the garden of eternal life, the new Adam is convoluted in pain and apathy on the benches in the hospital waiting rooms and of the social services and employment bureaus. By the \u201cold Adam\u201d here Pijanmanov is not alluding to the Apostle Paul\u2019s meditation about Christ as the \u201cnew Adam\u201d. Rather, he is referring to the contemporary condition, with its terrifying postmodern amalgam of radical individualism, heartless neo-liberal globalism and corrupted concentration of power. This is however not a statement about the \u201cobjective\u201d perception of reality that demands an \u201cunrelenting despair\u201d. This is true for other intelligent beings such as angels. With the painting \u201cFallen Angel\u201d, Pijanmanov gives a hamartiological commentary on sin as an alienation from God. Even in principle \u201cspiritual\u201d beings such as angels suffer from alienation from God when they fall away from Him. Pijanmanov depicts the angel anthropomorphically adding to the human figure black wings emphasizing his artistic and Theological anthropocentricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the Waiting Room\u201d and \u201cEternal Waiting\u201d have a similar composition. The former suggests a dungeon, the latter a desert. There is no escape from either. \u201cThe Man Who is Waiting\u201d goes along with the emotional charge of the whole collection of paintings of this exhibition. What \u201cjumps out\u201d is the golden background and the gold tones of the palms. One of them is almost completely golden. In this painting, I believe, Pijanmanov \u201chides\u201d an anthropological paradox similar to that of van Gogh with the painting with two titles, \u201cSorrowing Old Man\u201d and \u201cAt Eternity’s Gate\u201d.Pijanmanov and van Gogh share a common anthropology. Both are agitated by the injustices and exploitation committed by corrupted power, and both believe that there is an exalted divine providence for humanity.According to van Gogh, in Man \u201c\u2026there is something noble, something great that cannot be destined for the worms.\u201dAccording to Pijanmanov art\u2019s primary role is to ennoble humanity. In one place he says, \u201cArt is faith! It changes people from the inside quicker than education. There is something prophetic and missiological in art. It is a spiritual determination.\u201d \u201cAdam\u2019s Cry\u201d articulates such spiritual determination with greatpassion. The composition and the paletteof the \u201cMan who is Waiting\u201d is a \u201cmanifesto\u201d of this determination. Sorrow, pain, loneliness, alienation, dominate the painting. But this man, like van Gogh\u2019s figure, stands at eternity\u2019s gate. This is anticipated by the golden color used in iconography to indicate God\u2019s essence. Once the hypostatic unity of Christ as divine and human is accomplished, all human nature can participate in the divinity based on God\u2019s grace. Thus, \u201cEternal Waiting\u201d is transformed into \u201cwaiting for eternity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until this is realized, \u201cAdam\u2019s Cry\u201d will be heard, the collective protest of human nature against all \u201cwaiting\u201d in the dark corridors of malicious centers of power that take the Earth, human beings, and all living creatures in general as a resource for their own goals and interests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In \u201cAdam\u2019s Cry\u201d, Pijanmanov communicates the cry of the whole world. But this is not only a cry for transformation. It is a sign of unyielding hope that God will \u201c\u2026Wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAdam\u2019s Cry\u201d is the artist\u2019s prophetic and missiological symbol for the first Adam who cries and for the second Adam – Christ who exclaims \u201cBehold, I am making all things new.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Kosta Milkov<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Balkan Institute for Faith and Culture <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nikola Pijanmanov\u2019s art expresses his \u201cPhilosophy of Life\u201d which naturally incorporates his vocation as an academic painter. Thematically, Pijanmanov resists the currents of the contemporary world:most of his works explore religious, and even Biblical, subjects. This exposes him to charges of being concerned with outmoded questions, something of which Pijanmanov is fully aware. He takes it into account in his work.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[13,3,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gallerymc.org\/h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11051"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gallerymc.org\/h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gallerymc.org\/h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gallerymc.org\/h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gallerymc.org\/h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11051"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.gallerymc.org\/h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11067,"href":"http:\/\/www.gallerymc.org\/h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11051\/revisions\/11067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gallerymc.org\/h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gallerymc.org\/h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gallerymc.org\/h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gallerymc.org\/h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}