Santa Fe New Mexico

Blade Runner

An Homage to Pablo Picasso

 

 

Limited Edition Print sublimation on metal
Edition size: 28
Size 25 x 20.8

 

This painting by Vladimir Kush is a paraphrase of the well-known work by Pablo Picasso entitled “Girl on the Ball,” painted in his blue period.  There is an athlete and a girl balancing on a ball on the foreground of the painting.  The athlete, in Picasso’s painting, symbolizes motionlessness and stability, while the girl is a symbol of life and flexibility.

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The painting by Picasso is built on contrasts.  The bluish-pink light in the background signifies a specific period of Picasso’s creative life.  In essence, Pablo Picasso was sure that any physical body could be represented with planes and facets.  This assurance was proven by the fact that the painting is a 2 dimensional plane, and everything else is an illusion.  The outline of the horse in a pasture and the figure of the woman bystander with the child are lacking any volume and are slipping off the painting.

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Kush brings back the 3 dimensional reality of color and shape and their significance in the painting.  He establishes that the contradiction between such opposites like hard-stone and flexible-life is going much further then the postmodernist trick.  The artist introduces a dramatic element.  The girl balancing on the edge of a blade is, in essence, a person balancing on the edge of the abyss, turning the dangerous stunt into a game.  The powerful athlete on the foreground has turned into a monument with vines growing over him.  The sun revives the landscape while its rays shine as sharp blades.  The flower leaning over the blade is an important symbol of life glorification.