Marian Fannon Christian The Sacred Organic
At Zari Gallery 2019
By appropriating the Surrealist technique of automatism, artists in the peak of post-war Modernism such as Peter Busa, Arthur Dove, Gerome Kamrowski, and Boris Margo found their voices in what came to be called, “abstract surrealism,” now known as organic abstraction. These artists were not consciously aware that the forms in their paintings resembled elements found in nature. However, like scientists who use microscopes as a tool to view organisms imperceptible to the naked eye, these artists used automaticism to reveal the latent organic forms lying beneath the surface of the subconscious. Over the years, generations of artists have followed their instinctual journey towards abstraction. Marian Fannon Christian is a notable artist who has from the turn of the Millennium created this style of abstraction – one faithful to the original concept but more narrowly focused.
All of life responds to the primordial, tangible evolution of our planet. Marian Fannon Christian’s art exudes a certain inner familiarity, something very fundamental, and essential. Her abstract paintings are about the organic complexities that surround us and yet are more often than not, invisible. Discovering beauty in unexpected forms and unexpected places has prompted Marian Fannon Christian to create an abstract visual language rooted in the natural world. Organic forms, morphological structures, processes are masterfully weaved within each other with an astute sense of negative space and composition.
Characterized by intuitive and loose paint handling, spontaneous expression, illusionist space, staining, occasional recognisable forms, and other painterly techniques, the abstract works included in this exhibition sing with rich fluid colour and quiet energy. They are lyrical, sensuous abstractions in colours which are soft and vibrant. Through this body of work Marian Fannon Christian convinces us that even when life destroys forms, new ones will be born, unaffected and joyous in the full splendour of their forms, patterns and colours.
Marian Fannon Christian is in a constant search of that which is ‘on the other side’, the transcendental. Her works of art convey a sense of serenity, allowing the viewer to re-live an atmospheric memory in their relationship to nature. As such, her organic surrealism refracts the organic as a sacred space. In her art the joy of life is translated as the pure joy of painting. Inner realisation reaches out to those aspects of life that can only be experienced when we are alert to the smallest, unnoticeable parts of nature. It teaches us that when we surrender the whole of our being to the wonders of life, nature in all its wondrous forms becomes magical.