As a contemporary artist, Paul Lisak’s
work is, at first, remarquably accessible. It is atypical
of European art in the 21st century. Not for him the dubious
seduction of “conceptual art” or the half-ironic
style that pays lip service to the past by knowing self-quotation.
Instead, Lisak is, and enjoys the acclaim of being, a somewhat
old fashion artist, He even selects his canvas types to match
the intended “feel” of the subject.
When we first confront
his canvasses, their very size as well as subject matter reminds
us that there is an artist whose debt to the Old Masters, especially
to Titian, Tintoretto and to Caravaggio, to name only three,
is at once overt. Yet his style remains very much his own, even
when his working method and his artistic conviction lie closest
to his great forbears. As a result, this is immediately comforting
(as it is so freely recognisable) while it still offers a challenge
as it seems unexpected, almost out of place, in the contemporary
field.
It comes as no surprise,
therefore, that Lisak feels most at home with both religious
and secular scenes that are often treated within a mythical
or historical context (broadly “narrative histories”)
and in portraiture. These are fields that few artistes currently
believe are worth visiting. Yet it is here that the greatest
of European Masters have always commanded attention, and Paul
Lisak’s work reminds us of the importance of such antecedents.
Whereas many modern
artists might use “the story” of a religious fable
or the myth of past gods in some sort of ironic way, Lisak imbues
them with a truth that is very much his own. Religion, he avers,
is simply about being human, not about being Christian, or Muslim,
or something other. It is the humanity and the very human-ness
of being that counts most and interests him. In this approach,
it is not that he appropriates a “religious vocabulary”
for his pictures, as if buying an “of the peg” outfit,
but rather that his observation of human nature (Power, Greed,
Gentleness, the Unexpected) is framed in a traditional way that
may be open to a religious reading, but is essentially drawn
from Nature.
This concern for humanity
is perhaps most clearly apparent in his portraits, where the
faces tell a story with an almost indecent immediacy. The faces
that meet us are at once wistful and calm, contemporary and
timeless. At times, the brushwork is ruthless and a close inspection
of the canvas shows how little the portrait bears relation to
the demand for a flattering piece, whereas it is enlivened by
a psychological insight so that we encounter the man beneath
the surcoat, the soul beneath the face.
In his allegorical
works (such as “Triptych 2003”), Lisak has taken
both Christian and pre-Christian mythology as a way of commenting
on the world of his own day. The conflict of East and West,
of Israeli and Palestinian, of Arab and non-Arab, of Muslim
and non-Muslim, is treated of seriously as our responsibility.
The work is violent, much as Rubens consciously was, and yet
inescapably it includes poetic moments, passages in which there
is a real sense of the power of art to shape and conform society
even at its most ill ordered and self-destructive.
Unlike, say, John Keane,
Lisak has chosen to stay with realism. Lisak is clearly quite
prepared to take cudgels and to fight for justice, for Peace,
for an end to War, but one feels that the real conviction in
his soul is to fight for ART, for the gift of an inspired way
of healing the world. And if that informs humanity in our secular
age of passing passions, and can prevent useless political or
religious waste, so much the better.
Dr Nicholas Cranfield
Nicholas Cranfiled-Comments on paintings
On “Islam2002”
II:
In “Islam”, a woman breast-feeds
a child, her face half hidden by wearing the burkha. Will
the boy never see her mother’s face? Will we? (More
importantly, should we. For how can we know the unknowable
and how dare we trespass into a culture that may not be
our own). There is both a profound sadness and an extreme
joy hovering around the canvas that almost defies description.
Lisak’s paintbrush has posed a difficult question.
On “ The
Green Coat”:
In the green coat, this tense anticipation
is replaced by simple trust as a young child lies folded
in sleep in the arms of her mother. This painting can
be read as secular versions of the Madonna and child,
but it deliberately contrasts the Western idiom of that
religious iconography so that they are subtly subverted
with a less identifiable, almost uneasy assertion of Motherhood.
On “David
and Goliath”:
In “David and Goliath”, the
viewer is made complicit with the potential act of terrorism,
the inevitable consequence not of the male protagonist’s
wanton threat of brutality, but of our unwillingness to
act as we stand back. The scale of the canvas and the
intensity of the scene defy us to become engaged.
On “Le
Souper d’Amis”:
Ernst Bloch once wrote: “Where
there is hope there is always Religion. Where there is
Religion, there is not always Hope.” In his paintings,
Lisak often uses a religious vocabulary by way of describing
and informing the contemporary world.
We are powerfully reminded of this in the faces of the
diviards at table in “Le Souper d’Amis”.
They are glimpsed as if they are at Emmaus, protagonists
in a latter day sacra conversazione. These are friends
at table where hope can still preside as the unexpected
guest.
On “The
Arrest of the Christ”:
A cosmic light illuminates the scene.
Judas himself is not diminished as a deformed, traitorous
soul. His decision – to betray a friend and to traduce
an intimate with a kiss, that uniquely human sign of affection
and grace – underlines the simply terrible human
cost of it all.
On “the sacrifice of Odin”:
The Killing of Odin is just as powerful
as the arrest of the Christ; the god-man figure bound
to the tree is as pitiable as the protagonist in the Garden
of Gethsemane. Both canvases are profound studies of human
tragedy.
El punto de las Artes
La juventud de Paul
lisak (1967) nos parece inverosímil cuando nos situamos
frente a sus obras. Formado en diferentes escuelas de arte europeas
y conociendo las diferentes escuelas asociadas a la modernidad,
su opción personal ha sido la defensa a ultranza de las
caracteristicas de la pintura clásica, siguiendo la linea
de los grandes maestros renacentistas y barrocos. Aunque podriamos
encontrar rasgos de Velásquez, Tintoretto o Rembrandt,
su gran inspiración es el italiano Caravaggio, incomprendido
de su época y fascinador de las generaciones siguientes
hasta nuestros dias por la modernidad de sus encuadres y sus
osadías lumínicas.
El Punto de las Artes
Marzo de 2004
H.M. La Gazette De Drouot
Caravagesques avec
leurs beaux effets soutenus de contrastes entre l’ombre
et la lumière, inspirées parfois par une fable
ou par la mythologie, d’un baroquisme plein d’envoi,
constamment fondées sur une symbolique évidente
ou cryptée, les grandes toiles de cet artiste m’ont
donne un choc, je le reconnais. Le peintre en effet n’a
que 36 ans et possède déjà une grande maitrise
de son art. Les hommes et les femmes qu’il représente
sont bien de notre temps avec leurs jeans, leurs pulls ou leurs
robes chemises, mais la façon dont ils sont mis en scène
sur le support évoque les grandes compositions du XVIe
siècle. Chaque toile évoque un événement
mystérieux sur lequel on aimerait apprendre d’avantage.
Toutes ces œuvres sont robustes et sincères, et
terriblement audacieuses car elles bravent délibérément
les oukases contemporains qui interdisent aux jeunes de se référer
au passé. Vous en ferez peut-être fi ou vous vous
émerveillerez, mais vous n’y serez pas indifférent.
H.M.
La Gazette de Drouot, 2003
Roland de Chaudennay
« Audace : Paul
Lisak défie les grands thèmes qui nourrissent
les angoisses et les passions des hommes. Ces sujets, ils agitèrent
tant de plumes et de pinceaux, depuis des siècles, qu’on
les voulait épuisés : les voici tout neufs, vigoureux,
sublimés dans leur mystère, enrichi par une mythologie
enivrante et par une technique impeccable qui tient à
la grande tradition classique.
Qu’on regarde
portraits, scènes ou allégories, parfois de grandes
dimensions : pas de trucage, pas d’épate ; mais
un affrontement savant entre l’ombre et la lumière,
qui soulève des émotions profondes, puissantes,
tenaces et qui fait croire à la Beauté.
Paul Lisak est jeune.
Osera-t-on dire qu’un maître est né ? »
Roland de Chaudenay
Brien Sewell
"Paul
Lisak's study of a troubled priest is a brave and painterly
attempt to exploit the pattern of the long half-length
without being over-whelmed by its conventions. "
Brian Sewell, Evening Standard
(June 2004) on the BP portrait awards 2004.
Cultural del ABC- Javier Rubio
MORIR MATANDO
Como un crítico
francés osó escribir aquello de “podrá
usted odiarlo o quedar hechizado por él, pero es seguro
que este trabajo no le dejará indiferente”, usaré
su temeridad a modo de ariete para que su sacrificio no sea
en vano: tan cierto es que difícilmente puede el ojo
del viandante no ser seducido por las pinturas de Paul Lisak,
como que la existencia misma de ese poder de atracción
supone la negación de todo lo que el artista reivindica.
Tal poder se caracteriza por su universalidad: no hay nadie
tan insensible que no halle placer en la contemplación
de un amplio conjunto de pinturas de Tiziano, Caravaggio, Rubens
o Ribera... Esto no depende del nivel de educación visual
del individuo, ni de si está mas comprometido con la
tradición que con la vanguardia; ni siquiera de sus gustos:
musculosas –o adiposas- figuras semidesnudas bajo la dramática
luz puntual; violentos escorzos y poderosas manos crispadas
en el primer plano; seis cientos kilos de triceps; grandes dorsales
y femorales...¿Como negar frente a estas maravillas,
que el arte ya no es lo que fue?....Maravillas pues, universalmente
aceptadas como tales, porque obviamente, Lisak es un superdotado...
Javier Rubio Nomblot
ABC, Cultura 22 enero de 2005
Glynn Redworth
La
alianza de las civilizaciones ha encontrado a su maestro. No
aludo al buenismo del Sr. Zapatero, el presidente del gobierno
español que cree con fervor en la muy necesitada amistad
entre las dos más grandes religiones del planeta, sino
al claroscuro de Paul Lisak (Bayona 1967). En su exposición
Reincarnación este monoteísta británico
de ligero acento francés y de ascendencia rusa explora
las múltiples civilizaciones de su patria chica de Londres.
Lisak utiliza su arte para poner en relieve las preguntas preocupantes
de la sociedad oriento-occidental. Inspirada en los acontecimientos
del 11-7 en el tube londonidense, la primera parte de un impresionante
díptico muestra un fiel musulman sentado en un banco
leyendo el Corán. Es la pura santidad. En el segundo
cuadro, dos chavales británicos de distintos modos nos
traen la atención a la mochila al lado del lector piísimo
de la primera. Esta parte del díptico se llama ´La
Pregunta´. ¿Tenemos la respuesta?
Además Lisak
interroga los símbolos más sagrados de la cristiandad,
pero siempre con el respeto y el buen entendimiento. En su impactante
Arresto de Cristo los que detienen al Hijo de Dios llevan los
cascos de militares contemporáneos y tienen pinto de
soldados guiris – pero guiris occidentales y orientales.
Los poderes de Lisak
como retratista de lujo son enviables. Como en todos los lienzos
su obligación a Velazquéz es innegable (como a
los hermanos Caracci en sus bodegones). La luz se concentra
acerca del sujeto y sobretodo alrededor de la cara, y no frivoliza
sus retratos con los accesories de moda, sean maletines o los
cigarillos de antemaño, por ejemplo la intensa sencillez
de las diversas cabezas de su Nueve Caras del Londres étnico.
Conjunta sus deudas
al Siglo de Oro, sus dones retratistas, y su mente indagatoria
en una serie de cuadros de su mujer, Raschida, y su primogénito,
Ilya (donde demuestra su exquisita capacidad de pintar las manos
de un niño agarrando con ternura a su madre). En uno
la mujer trae puesta el burka mientras su hijo lleva la camiseta
roja de un superhéroe americano. ¿Encarnan la
alianza de las civilizaciones o solamente una confusión
entre ellas? Al menos madre y hijo no comparten dudas.
NCransfield Art critic
When we first confront his canvasses, their very size as well as subject matter reminds us that there is an artist whose debt to the Old Masters, especially to Titian, Tintoretto and to Caravaggio, to name only three, is at once overt. Yet his style remains very much his own, even when his working method and his artistic conviction lie closest to his great forbears. As a result, this is immediately comforting (as it is so freely recognisable) while it still offers a challenge as it seems unexpected, almost out of place, in the contemporary field.
It comes as no surprise, therefore, that Lisak feels most at home with both religious and secular scenes that are often treated within a mythical or historical context (broadly “narrative histories”) and in portraiture. These are fields that few artistes currently believe are worth visiting. Yet it is here that the greatest of European Masters have always commanded attention, and Paul Lisak’s work reminds us of the importance of such antecedents.
Whereas many modern artists might use “the story” of a religious fable or the myth of past gods in some sort of ironic way, Lisak imbues them with a truth that is very much his own. Religion, he avers, is simply about being human, not about being Christian, or Muslim, or something other. It is the humanity and the very human-ness of being that counts most and interests him. In this approach, it is not that he appropriates a “religious vocabulary” for his pictures, as if buying an “of the peg” outfit, but rather that his observation of human nature (Power, Greed, Gentleness, the Unexpected) is framed in a traditional way that may be open to a religious reading, but is essentially drawn from Nature.
This concern for humanity is perhaps most clearly apparent in his portraits, where the faces tell a story with an almost indecent immediacy. The faces that meet us are at once wistful and calm, contemporary and timeless. At times, the brushwork is ruthless and a close inspection of the canvas shows how little the portrait bears relation to the demand for a flattering piece, whereas it is enlivened by a psychological insight so that we encounter the man beneath the surcoat, the soul beneath the face.
In his allegorical works (such as “Triptych 2003”), Lisak has taken both Christian and pre-Christian mythology as a way of commenting on the world of his own day. The conflict of East and West, of Israeli and Palestinian, of Arab and non-Arab, of Muslim and non-Muslim, is treated of seriously as our responsibility. The work is violent, much as Rubens consciously was, and yet inescapably it includes poetic moments, passages in which there is a real sense of the power of art to shape and conform society even at its most ill ordered and self-destructive.
Unlike, say, John Keane, Lisak has chosen to stay with realism. Lisak is clearly quite prepared to take cudgels and to fight for justice, for Peace, for an end to War, but one feels that the real conviction in his soul is to fight for ART, for the gift of an inspired way of healing the world. And if that informs humanity in our secular age of passing passions, and can prevent useless political or religious waste, so much the better.
Dr Nicholas Cranfield
Nicholas Cranfiled-Comments on paintings
In “Islam”, a woman breast-feeds a child, her face half hidden by wearing the burkha. Will the boy never see her mother’s face? Will we? (More importantly, should we. For how can we know the unknowable and how dare we trespass into a culture that may not be our own). There is both a profound sadness and an extreme joy hovering around the canvas that almost defies description. Lisak’s paintbrush has posed a difficult question.
On “ The Green Coat”:
In the green coat, this tense anticipation is replaced by simple trust as a young child lies folded in sleep in the arms of her mother. This painting can be read as secular versions of the Madonna and child, but it deliberately contrasts the Western idiom of that religious iconography so that they are subtly subverted with a less identifiable, almost uneasy assertion of Motherhood.
On “David and Goliath”:
In “David and Goliath”, the viewer is made complicit with the potential act of terrorism, the inevitable consequence not of the male protagonist’s wanton threat of brutality, but of our unwillingness to act as we stand back. The scale of the canvas and the intensity of the scene defy us to become engaged.
On “Le Souper d’Amis”:
Ernst Bloch once wrote: “Where there is hope there is always Religion. Where there is Religion, there is not always Hope.” In his paintings, Lisak often uses a religious vocabulary by way of describing and informing the contemporary world.
We are powerfully reminded of this in the faces of the diviards at table in “Le Souper d’Amis”. They are glimpsed as if they are at Emmaus, protagonists in a latter day sacra conversazione. These are friends at table where hope can still preside as the unexpected guest.
On “The Arrest of the Christ”:
A cosmic light illuminates the scene. Judas himself is not diminished as a deformed, traitorous soul. His decision – to betray a friend and to traduce an intimate with a kiss, that uniquely human sign of affection and grace – underlines the simply terrible human cost of it all.
On “the sacrifice of Odin”:
The Killing of Odin is just as powerful as the arrest of the Christ; the god-man figure bound to the tree is as pitiable as the protagonist in the Garden of Gethsemane. Both canvases are profound studies of human tragedy.
El punto de las Artes
La juventud de Paul lisak (1967) nos parece inverosímil cuando nos situamos frente a sus obras. Formado en diferentes escuelas de arte europeas y conociendo las diferentes escuelas asociadas a la modernidad, su opción personal ha sido la defensa a ultranza de las caracteristicas de la pintura clásica, siguiendo la linea de los grandes maestros renacentistas y barrocos. Aunque podriamos encontrar rasgos de Velásquez, Tintoretto o Rembrandt, su gran inspiración es el italiano Caravaggio, incomprendido de su época y fascinador de las generaciones siguientes hasta nuestros dias por la modernidad de sus encuadres y sus osadías lumínicas.
El Punto de las Artes
Marzo de 2004
H.M. La Gazette De Drouot
Caravagesques avec leurs beaux effets soutenus de contrastes entre l’ombre et la lumière, inspirées parfois par une fable ou par la mythologie, d’un baroquisme plein d’envoi, constamment fondées sur une symbolique évidente ou cryptée, les grandes toiles de cet artiste m’ont donne un choc, je le reconnais. Le peintre en effet n’a que 36 ans et possède déjà une grande maitrise de son art. Les hommes et les femmes qu’il représente sont bien de notre temps avec leurs jeans, leurs pulls ou leurs robes chemises, mais la façon dont ils sont mis en scène sur le support évoque les grandes compositions du XVIe siècle. Chaque toile évoque un événement mystérieux sur lequel on aimerait apprendre d’avantage. Toutes ces œuvres sont robustes et sincères, et terriblement audacieuses car elles bravent délibérément les oukases contemporains qui interdisent aux jeunes de se référer au passé. Vous en ferez peut-être fi ou vous vous émerveillerez, mais vous n’y serez pas indifférent.
H.M.
La Gazette de Drouot, 2003
Roland de Chaudennay
« Audace : Paul Lisak défie les grands thèmes qui nourrissent les angoisses et les passions des hommes. Ces sujets, ils agitèrent tant de plumes et de pinceaux, depuis des siècles, qu’on les voulait épuisés : les voici tout neufs, vigoureux, sublimés dans leur mystère, enrichi par une mythologie enivrante et par une technique impeccable qui tient à la grande tradition classique.
Qu’on regarde portraits, scènes ou allégories, parfois de grandes dimensions : pas de trucage, pas d’épate ; mais un affrontement savant entre l’ombre et la lumière, qui soulève des émotions profondes, puissantes, tenaces et qui fait croire à la Beauté.
Paul Lisak est jeune. Osera-t-on dire qu’un maître est né ? »
Roland de Chaudenay
Brien Sewell
Brian Sewell, Evening Standard (June 2004) on the BP portrait awards 2004.
Cultural del ABC- Javier Rubio
MORIR MATANDO
Como un crítico francés osó escribir aquello de “podrá usted odiarlo o quedar hechizado por él, pero es seguro que este trabajo no le dejará indiferente”, usaré su temeridad a modo de ariete para que su sacrificio no sea en vano: tan cierto es que difícilmente puede el ojo del viandante no ser seducido por las pinturas de Paul Lisak, como que la existencia misma de ese poder de atracción supone la negación de todo lo que el artista reivindica. Tal poder se caracteriza por su universalidad: no hay nadie tan insensible que no halle placer en la contemplación de un amplio conjunto de pinturas de Tiziano, Caravaggio, Rubens o Ribera... Esto no depende del nivel de educación visual del individuo, ni de si está mas comprometido con la tradición que con la vanguardia; ni siquiera de sus gustos: musculosas –o adiposas- figuras semidesnudas bajo la dramática luz puntual; violentos escorzos y poderosas manos crispadas en el primer plano; seis cientos kilos de triceps; grandes dorsales y femorales...¿Como negar frente a estas maravillas, que el arte ya no es lo que fue?....Maravillas pues, universalmente aceptadas como tales, porque obviamente, Lisak es un superdotado...
Javier Rubio Nomblot
ABC, Cultura 22 enero de 2005
Glynn Redworth
La alianza de las civilizaciones ha encontrado a su maestro. No aludo al buenismo del Sr. Zapatero, el presidente del gobierno español que cree con fervor en la muy necesitada amistad entre las dos más grandes religiones del planeta, sino al claroscuro de Paul Lisak (Bayona 1967). En su exposición Reincarnación este monoteísta británico de ligero acento francés y de ascendencia rusa explora las múltiples civilizaciones de su patria chica de Londres. Lisak utiliza su arte para poner en relieve las preguntas preocupantes de la sociedad oriento-occidental. Inspirada en los acontecimientos del 11-7 en el tube londonidense, la primera parte de un impresionante díptico muestra un fiel musulman sentado en un banco leyendo el Corán. Es la pura santidad. En el segundo cuadro, dos chavales británicos de distintos modos nos traen la atención a la mochila al lado del lector piísimo de la primera. Esta parte del díptico se llama ´La Pregunta´. ¿Tenemos la respuesta?
Además Lisak interroga los símbolos más sagrados de la cristiandad, pero siempre con el respeto y el buen entendimiento. En su impactante Arresto de Cristo los que detienen al Hijo de Dios llevan los cascos de militares contemporáneos y tienen pinto de soldados guiris – pero guiris occidentales y orientales.
Los poderes de Lisak como retratista de lujo son enviables. Como en todos los lienzos su obligación a Velazquéz es innegable (como a los hermanos Caracci en sus bodegones). La luz se concentra acerca del sujeto y sobretodo alrededor de la cara, y no frivoliza sus retratos con los accesories de moda, sean maletines o los cigarillos de antemaño, por ejemplo la intensa sencillez de las diversas cabezas de su Nueve Caras del Londres étnico.
Conjunta sus deudas al Siglo de Oro, sus dones retratistas, y su mente indagatoria en una serie de cuadros de su mujer, Raschida, y su primogénito, Ilya (donde demuestra su exquisita capacidad de pintar las manos de un niño agarrando con ternura a su madre). En uno la mujer trae puesta el burka mientras su hijo lleva la camiseta roja de un superhéroe americano. ¿Encarnan la alianza de las civilizaciones o solamente una confusión entre ellas? Al menos madre y hijo no comparten dudas.
Dr. Glyn Redworth
London, march 2006