"Summer Night" by Andrey Selenin

 

This painting is titled "Summer Night" by the young Russian artist Andrey Selenin. (1973-) Selenin is a student of the Repin School in St. Petersburg, the Academy calling their particular style "Realism."

Whether viewed as print or in digital form on the net, certain paintings reach out and create an effect for the observer.

"Summer Night" reached out from my computer screen and held me spellbound for only a matter of seconds, but the image in my mind's eye continued...

I remember having a discussion years ago with a friend concerning "hype-reality," "representation," and the "original" of a particular work. The question was whether the artist's authentic (creative) energy can impact the viewer in a mere copy like a digital representation?

I concluded that if the painting is beautiful or outstanding somehow, a digital representation would be just as powerful as seeing the original.

 Since that discussion, I've changed my mind, and admittedly, original works have a "deeper" impact on the viewer than a copy. Why?

Art, for me, is mainly a visceral experience. To rationally explain why an original Picasso hung on a wall in a museum in Madrid named after the artist, for example, "The Guitarist," bowls me over, yet a digital representation merely gets the heart-pounding...there is a difference; maybe a matter of degrees of heart-felt response...who knows?

I believe "knowing" that you're seeing the "original," the brain sets the heart up... 'this is the real thing,' and the viewer responds appropriately.

The above piece by Selenin, no matter a digital representation, impacts aesthetically and viscerally, making the mind wander to cool summer evenings... and a certain calmness as the crickets play their songs.

That center point of the lighted window amongst the natural light of dusk is absolutely fabulous.

Some of us must be content to see only copies of copies and digital representations of great art.

However, as my old friend argued years ago, the original has the most significant impact on the viewer.

I'd love to see "Summer Night" in the original...outstanding.