Tony Magar / Infinity Trail / 2007 / oil on canvas / 64 x 78 inches / Mike Weiss Gallery

Layers upon layers of dripped and splashed paint draw you in and reveal themselves in the changing light. Contemplative, the paintings unfold over time, requiring multiple and sustained viewings. Lyrical and sensual, translucent colors radiate a luminous glow, warming and uplifting. Like a clear refreshing mountain breeze, or dip in a secluded pond of snow melt, I felt cleansed and invigorated after viewing Tony Magar’s paintings.

“To lift the human spirit to its highest level seems to me the purpose of art the light, the air, the sound, the color of the day, these are the things I take home in my eyes to contemplate.” -Tony Magar

Tony Magar, Buddha Sometimes, On view at Mike Weiss Gallery through May 3

The world was in shock when in 2001 the Talibans destroyed two ancient colossal Buddha statues in the Afghan region of Bamiyan. Behind those statues, there are caves decorated with precious paintings from 5th to 9th century A.D. The caves also suffered from Taliban destruction, as well as from a severe natural environment, but today they have become the source of a major discovery. Scientists have proved, thanks to experiments performed at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), that the paintings were made of oil, hundreds of years before the technique was “invented” in Europe. Results are published today in the peer-reviewed Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry.

In many European history and art books, oil painting is said to have started in the 15th century in Europe. But scientists from the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties in Tokyo (Japan), the Centre of Research and Restoration of the French Museums-CNRS (France), the Getty Conservation Institute (United States) and the ESRF have recently identified drying oils in some of the samples they studied from the Bamiyan caves. Painted in the mid-7th century A.D., the murals show scenes with Buddhas in vermilion robes sitting cross-legged amid palm leaves and mythical creatures. The scientists discovered that 12 out of the 50 caves were painted with oil painting technique, using perhaps walnut and poppy seed drying oils. [Read more...]