Deon Venter - Last Supper - 2005-2006
In the Last Supper Series which I embarked on in December 2004, I set out not to pursue the mathematics underlying the painterly composition, nor the subject of the Last Supper. I intended using it as an exploration of the visceral beauty in the decay of this very familiar composition. I feel my way around as an artist emotionally involved, rather than analytical, in the hope that the compositional mathematical formula will reveal itself by imperial method rather than scientific.
The method employed is simple, yet hopefully, effective. By using horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines, taped directly onto the canvas, to form the architectural composition, I repeatedly - from one painting to the next - deconstructed the composition and then replaced the imagery with a personally explored idiom of the subject.
By removing the tape, the lines are etched as scars in the paint. The room itself becomes a vessel and setting for the story and in general for the world, as in latitudes and longitudes. The spiritual sensibility emanates from this abstract composition. Deon Venter 2006
