(Click any picture or scroll)
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Wedding Dancers $9500. |
Ghost Dance Order: $9500 |
Two Deer $5500. |
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Sioux Mourner $6500 |
Moonrise $2500 |
Horses #6 In progress $ ? |
Aikang Chen "Wedding Dancers"
Full of movement, excitement, and melody, "Wedding Dancers" was based on the pictorial legends
found in the caves along the old silk road in Yunnan Province, PRC in the 1970's.
They inspired the "Yunnan School Style"
prominent among modern Chinese artists in the 1980's and 90's.
People love to study this picture to find all the see-through overlaps Aikang has created.
The flowers, peacocks and petals are fertility symbols.
It tends to dominate a room because of its size, radiance, and grace.
This picture is not one of those I would class as
communicating mysticism or spirituality through living light as
I expressed in "Fine Art's Oversight"--"Eureka".
First, the subject matter doesn't fit.
Second, the many, many small cuttings of wood do not
convey more than color and some pattern.
Instead, this is a traditional marquetry picture, except it's large.
Nevertheless, the picture is bright and colorful in full light.
36 species; acrylic lacquer, UV additives. 48 x 48. 2001.
A collaboration. Marquetry by Gene Zanni.
Price: $9500
Oscar Howe "Ghost Dance"
By firelight, the spirits of deceased relatives rise to dance with the living.
Yanktonai Sioux artist Oscar Howe (1915-1983) melded traditional themes and Indian mysticism
with modern styles of painting, and thus created a visual chronicle of the spirituality
of the Native American. During 25 years of teaching at the University of South Dakota,
an entire generation of art students absorbed his ideas and received his guidance.
His work lives and grows through them.
Oscar Howe's paintings are in many private collections and several major museums across the country.
He is recognized as possibly the most important Native American painter of the 20th century.
The original "Ghost Dance" resides at the Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ.
The moving light in the marquetry interpretation enhances the Native American's
mystical sense of association with the spirits in both life and death
as a part of a continual communion with nature.
When a dimmer is used with the lighting on two sides, the figures seem to dance.
18 species of natural wood veneer; acrylic lacquer; UV additives.
48 x 60. An interpretation. 2001. By permission of Adelheidi Howe, widow.
Marquetry by Gene Zanni.
PRICE
Shown is the prototype.
I use it often to demonstrate chatoyance and its suggestion of spirit.
However, I will entertain outrageous offers to sell this first of a kind that I believe
could be the fountainhead for a new look in fine art.
I would prefer to construct copies (versions) when requested.
Price: $9500
Oscar Howe "Two Deer"
The vortex pointing to an infinite vanishing point is not part
of the original Oscar Howe painting, but I think it fits the Native American
sense of communion with nature and its creator.
Light flashes through the green tinted lacquer (the spots) as if
the sun were peeking through a morning desert fog.
The picture is not museum quality: the vortex doesn't work.
16 species of natural wood veneer; acrylic lacquer; UV additives.
48 x 60. An interpretation. 2002. By permission.
Marquetry by Gene Zanni.
Price: $5500
Oscar Howe "Sioux Mourner"
This is a scene of grief and outpouring of one's heart to the spirit
that is repeated in every family of every culture in every generation.
The mourner's union with the spirit is seen in his intensity,
and the spirit is present in the light from above surrounding him in the dark.
His communion is so consuming that he doesn't notice
that his buffalo robe has fallen and a blizzard is beginning.
18 species of natural wood veneer; acrylic lacquer; UV additives.
34 x 47. An Interpretation. 2002. By permission.
Marquetry by Gene Zanni.
Price: $6500
Sandra Fenimore Lauser "Moonrise"
A calming and fanciful image first produced about 1994.
This small version was crafted by my wife as a first try at marquetry.
It's good work, but not museum quality.
7 species of natural wood veneer; acrylic lacquer; UV additives; framed.
23 x 37. Originally a collaboration. 2003
Marquetry by Priscilla Zanni.
Price: $2500
Mao Jie "Horses" (Version #1 above)
Version #6 is under construction.
It will be similar to the picture above.
I received written permission from Mao Jie through his agent in Hong Kong,
Catherine Schubert, to make as many versions of "Horses" as I wished.
See the Portfolio for several of them.
It's the one picture I've done that everybody likes.
#6 will take the metaphor of the image to an extreme.
I am using the materials to add symbols that expand the artist's intent.
Different veneer colors will represent the races of humanity.
The brass lines will be the laws of chemistry, physics, and chance
that bind nature and man and man's invisible spirit.
A wood like mother of pearl will represent the common soul in all men.
The puzzle of the inextricable intertwining of bodies is man's interdependent societies,
and includes the struggle of individuals to be free of them.
The sky will be a chaos of pattern and stardust, the womb of man's world.
The whole of the image will represent the human dilemma
of every generation in every civilization.
9 species of natural wood veneer; brass lines; acrylic lacquer; UV additives.
48 x 48. An interpretation. 2006. By permission.
Marquetry by Gene Zanni.
Price: $ ? (Outrageous if it comes out right.)
Finishing date: probably in April 2006
