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October 31 to November 30, 2015
A photography exhibition that explores the imagery and concepts depicted by 14th century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch! His wondrous and strange fantasies leave many art historians perplexed. Was he reflecting mysterious practices of the Middle Ages or the originator of a surrealist art form? It seems Bosch’s name appears for the first time in the membership lists of the Brotherhood of Our Lady with which he was closely associated, suggesting an unusual context for his subject matter by today’s standards. The brotherhood was one of the many groups devoted to the worship of the Virgin, which flourished in the late Middle Ages. There are only 30 original works that remain of his intriguing paintings. However, each contain a visual virtuosity of mini depictions within!
This international call-for-entries exhibit will include a selection of work inspired by the wildly interpretive visual storyteller Hieronymus Bosch. Bosch lived from the 1450’s until 1516 in the Netherlands. Just to put that into perspective he was born after the “Black Death” and died after the completion of both Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. His surviving paintings have stunned viewers for centuries.
Bosch’s grotto mystique may point to the earliest surrealist artform. Originally, a grotto was any natural cave that was associated with prehistoric humans. Living in caves with their watery elements and foliations continued on through medieval times and became popular subjects for literature, ornament and artistic muse. Architecture and garden design also reflected the underworld with its naturalistic features.
Bosch was a pious man. His paintings depict detailed phantasm from a time when people were still being burned at the stake. His storytelling style wildly reveals a natural world inhabited by mythical and exotic animals tangled amongst crowds of humans struggling with the angst and frailties of the day.
The Grotteschi exhibition at CVA attempts to use photography to look deeper into the mirror of humanity with its fears intact while surrounded by natural elements on the planet we still all share.
Jurors: Ted Orland and Carol Henry.
