‘An enormous spiritual presence’ wins Blake Prize for artist
September 3, 2010 Filed under Dionysus
Brown laughs off his appearance with the Gibb brothers (he was only 11) and says he has stepped back from ecclesiastical duties. ”But there’s no such thing as an ex-priest,” he declares. ”With theology, as with art, there’s no retirement.”
He converted to the Russian Orthodox Church from Anglicanism in 1974, and still paints traditional Byzantine icons for churches and private individuals, though not for public viewing. It’s a completely different discipline to his work as an exhibiting artist.
”When I am working liturgically, I am like a scribe in an ancient scriptorium transcribing a scripture,” he says. ”There are things which cannot be altered. Ego has to be left at the door.”
By contrast, works like the one which won the Blake ”are my own personal poetry, the images are not liturgical”.
The method he uses, alla prima, involves working quickly while the oil paint stays wet, which makes the precision of his brushwork all the more remarkable. Yet Brown says there is a direct connection between the pure abstraction of his private work and the tradition of Russian iconography he has studied since he was 25. ”Modernism was one of the great contributions Russian emigres who fled during the time of the Russian Revolution injected into Western art.”
What does he hope those unfamiliar with religious iconography will get from his prizewinning painting? ”I hope they feel something of life, an affirmation of being, which is a primary spiritual sensibility.”
Tasha Sudan won the $5000 Blake Poetry Prize. Michelle Sakaris was awarded the $5000 John Coburn Emerging Artist Award.
The Blake Prize exhibition opens today at the National Art School Gallery, Darlinghurst, and is on show until October 2.
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