Oliver Hazard Benson

Disembodiment of the Cognitive Viscera (Crown Athena) - Surreal Original Artwork

2018

This is a version of the Renaissance motif known as "Death and the Maiden". I think the motif generally was meant to condemn Voluptus (born of the...

This painting, like each of the paintings in the Purple Dawn series, is based on an earlier work that was lost or destroyed in the course of time. Feeling that I wanted to finish wha...

This painting, like each of the paintings in the Purple Dawn series, is based on an earlier work that was lost or destroyed in the course of time. Feeling that I wanted to finish wha...

As is generally the case with my paintings, this work proceeded from a place of unknowing. The specificity of imagery and technique belie the non-specific character of the ideas and narratives presented. The imagery is not tied to any pre-existent source (textual or other). It is not preconceived by the artist, rather it is produced spontaneously in the process of painting. That said, it seems both easy and sensible to connect the imagery in this painting to common cultural material, especially that from very ancient sources. The central figure is very much like a totemic Neolithic goddess- the sort of which seem to be among the most ancient artistic works, examples are extant from eras stretching back tens of thousands of years. A lot has been written about figures of that kind but of course no one can reasonably claim to truly understand them. Here the great goddess appears with wings and entwined serpents. Crowned also with a glowing orb she has become an emblem of a matristic hermetica. The smaller figure may be less evidently archetypical. She is a younger goddess, a daughter like Persephone to Demeter. She lifts the breasts of her mother signifying perhaps how the presence of the child evokes the nurturing qualities of the mother or how Persephone’s seasonal ascent from the underworld awakens in her mother the impulse to again give life to the world. The cluster of gynomorphic figures contained by the crescent moon at the center of the painting refer to the balanced transformations of the lunar cycle and their mysteriously harmonic physical manifestation in the vital cycles of a woman’s body. At their axis is the cycloptical abdomen of the figure enthroned on the moon. The entire totem rises from a terrestrial gateway into an open landscape. In the background megaliths obscure the horizon. They represent a first boundary in time- the beginning of history. Below is the gateway, the opening to an inner earth...

This is an original oil on canvas painting by Charlene Mosley. Its dimensions are 36.5"x48.5"x1.5". It is unframed. A certificate of authenticity will follow delivery. Charlene Mos...

This is a pre-owned secondary market painting by Gloria Muriel. It is a framed figurative surrealist painting made with acrylic paint on canvas. Its dimensions are 9.5 x 13.5 in (L x...

French surrealist artist, late 20th/ early 21st century acrylic and pen painting on board, unframed board: 29.5 x 41.5 inches provenance: private collection, France condition: very g...

This is a one of a kind original painting by San Diego artist, Julia San Roman. It is oil on canvas and its dimensions are 30"x40". It is unframed. A c...