MOODS - SUNSET OVER THE VALLEY

‘Sunset over the Valley’ in dark ominous reds, bright orange and yellow is the hallmark or logo of Keith Balzan’s present collection. He is passionate, involved, tensed, dramatic on the verge of the tragic, laced with a presentiment of impeding ‘angst’ and enmeshed in a divine struggle towards a cataclysmic end. This is truly the artist’s mood. So young and yet obsessed with sunset, with the dying day rather than with sunrise the birth of another day.

It is the ‘dark side’ of his strong individual character that dominates over his powerful landscapes. ‘Sunset over the Valley’ could be regarded as a paean to mother nature but its explicit reference to ‘The Scream’ by Munch leaves no doubt to the artist’s personal interpretation of the phenomenon. It is perhaps his most powerful and evocative work.

‘Madliena Bridge’ is hardly less forceful, less evocative but it is charged with impending doom, with an underlying current of cosmic catastrophe. The white bridge screams in contrast to the dark olive green vegetation and dark obscure sky. There is so much fear and violence in an oasis of peace. It is psychic and metaphysical. It is imbued with the symbolism and mystery of a De Chirico work. It is surreal.

‘Gozitan Hills’, ‘From the Studio’, ‘Country Road’, ‘Cittadella’, and ‘Orange Sunset’ all belong to this phase of impending doom yet balance with a lyrical and poetic felt atmosphere that makes them almost painful or at least nostalgic, moody.

This element of tension, stress and anxiety overflows into his erotic nudes. Perhaps ‘Equilibrium’ is the most forceful and brazen of them all. ‘Expectant Mother’ is frontal and daring, ‘The Red Corridor’ warm and inviting, ‘Reclining Nude’ colourful and Picassian, ‘Mother and Child’ the most cubist while ‘Awakening’ is imbued with an explosive and contagious sensuality almost without comparison.

The painted torso of Michelangelo’s ‘David’ is interpreted with dynamic power and strength, a symbol of virility. While the head of ‘David’ (interpreted separately) refers to the defiant mood of the artist himself and not that of his subject. This portrait refers implicitly to the characteristic gaze of Keith Balzan.

Among his portraits is that of Leonardo’s ‘Mona Lisa’, a fine reworking of the Renaissance original turned into a grotesque caricature both modern and creative. Keith seems to have metamorphosed a Leonardo into a Picasso. The lyrical blues, greens and violets render the ugliness and distortion even more poignant, violent and cruel than in actuality.

His portraits haunt us. ‘Child’ and ‘Fisherman’ with their graphic dexterity and ‘Slave’ and ‘Young Pablo’ with their fabulous cubist interpretation and zest. Keith’s undying respect for Antoine Camilleri surfaces once more while in a small sketch of ‘The Painter’s Model’ graphics become a game in line and contrasts.

In ‘Pensive’ and ‘Pride’ the artist harps on vicissitudes of life and in ‘Visual Rendering’ the portrait is fully exploited to expose the pain and suffering of physical matter passing at speed and friction through space in deterioration towards annihilation.

‘Natura Morta’, a still life with skull projects the artist’s passion for warm colours and sensual light. It is a reference to an interior, probably the artist’s studio as a sacred space where Keith can enjoy solitude and relish a pensive mood. Keith’s studio window faces the setting sun. His studio is a belvedere overlooking the landscape that stretches from Santa Lucia to Mdina. No wonder most of his landscapes are painted from his studio window.

The polarity of this actual collection surfaces in two works that portray the gamut of his moods. These are the extremes of the spectrum: ‘Carribbean Blue’ is a study in placidity, tranquillity and serenity and ‘Temptation’ exposes the divine struggle between good and evil. The contest between these two forces seems balanced by flying swirling movement and linear tension. It is dynamic and cosmic.

In the ‘Fall of Icarus’ the pride of man is vanquished when his desire to fly as free as a bird is frustrated and ends in doom. His wings melt and he crashes to the ground. Keith appeals to the emotion with expressionist vigour. He is practical and he changes energy into physical matter. But he does not stop there. He appeals to the mind too and often matter is transformed again into energy or spirit in bouts of lyrical flights of fantasy.

His art is an expression of moods.

07.03.2007

E V Borg