In the painting “Man in Space”, Jonathan Borofsky depicted a giant nude figure walking against the background of an unreal mountain landscape. The bare skull with white empty eye sockets is surrounded by a wreath of multi-colored rays. The skull seems too large in comparison with the body. The grotesque appearance of the character makes him look like a creature from another world.
Jonathan Borofsky’s art is essentially autobiographical: the artist’s works reflect his thoughts, fears, and passions. His paintings reveal his perception of man and his connection with the cosmos. Many canvases contain symbols that express core existential fear, as well as a fear of death and human aggression.
Thus, the stones (the colored shapes at the head) can be interpreted as a symbol of heavy thoughts, and the spiral ribbon — as infinity.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Borofsky created complex installations, which were to express the connection between space, man, and reality. In these works, the artist recorded and sublimated complexes, fears, and subconscious desires. In this respect, Borofsky’s work addresses the deepest problems of being and partly coincides with the quest of the Surrealists. In his work, he used various techniques — drawing, painting, video, sculpture, and inscriptions. For example, the artist created “flat figures” — metal (steel or aluminum) silhouettes. Some of them were set in motion by special mechanisms.
The work “Man in Space” became a kind of transition from flat works of the 1970s to spatial installations dedicated to the position of man in the modern world.
The work synthesizes a virtual character with post-expressionistic hypertrophy of forms. The figure with a giant head, reminiscent of a computer game character, hangs over the viewer like a character in a nightmare. The character symbolizes human existence in a disturbing world of painful visions and a kind of “universal danger”. He is perceived both as a giant (compared to the landscape), and as a negligible and defenseless creature in this formidable space.
Jonathan Borofsky’s art is essentially autobiographical: the artist’s works reflect his thoughts, fears, and passions. His paintings reveal his perception of man and his connection with the cosmos. Many canvases contain symbols that express core existential fear, as well as a fear of death and human aggression.
Thus, the stones (the colored shapes at the head) can be interpreted as a symbol of heavy thoughts, and the spiral ribbon — as infinity.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Borofsky created complex installations, which were to express the connection between space, man, and reality. In these works, the artist recorded and sublimated complexes, fears, and subconscious desires. In this respect, Borofsky’s work addresses the deepest problems of being and partly coincides with the quest of the Surrealists. In his work, he used various techniques — drawing, painting, video, sculpture, and inscriptions. For example, the artist created “flat figures” — metal (steel or aluminum) silhouettes. Some of them were set in motion by special mechanisms.
The work “Man in Space” became a kind of transition from flat works of the 1970s to spatial installations dedicated to the position of man in the modern world.
The work synthesizes a virtual character with post-expressionistic hypertrophy of forms. The figure with a giant head, reminiscent of a computer game character, hangs over the viewer like a character in a nightmare. The character symbolizes human existence in a disturbing world of painful visions and a kind of “universal danger”. He is perceived both as a giant (compared to the landscape), and as a negligible and defenseless creature in this formidable space.
