Idea Fine Art takes great pleasure in presenting a major new cycle of pictures by the Canadian artist André Durand, featuring Holy Land events set in the verdant Sussex countryside. Durand’s WHOLLY PICTURES will be shown in ten Sussex churches, culminating in an exhibition at Petworth House in September, 2006. The exhibition will be launched at Saint George, West Grinstead, West Sussex on Saint George’s Day, 23 April 2006, with Durand’s allegory, Saint George, the Lady and the Dragon.
The feast of one of the patron saints of Arundel Cathedral, Saint Philip Neri, 26 May, marks the second unveiling of one of Durand’s WHOLLY PICTURES, With Christ in the Next, a Sacred Conversation dedicated to Our Lady and the other patron saint of the cathedral, the 16th century courtier and Earl of Arundel, Saint Philip How
The exhibition continues in early June at Chichester Cathedral with the presentation of Durand’s Annunciation, at Saint Andrew, Didling. In the same month the other Durand pictures in the cycle will be hung in each host church, in conjunction with services, concerts and readings. The Sussex landscape has provided the context and the inspiration for the Christian message of the pictures and will provide a focus for reflection and discussion within the parishes. The project will employ internet cameras at each church so that the public worldwide can see Durand’s WHOLLY PICTURES in situ, even during services, at the same time as the local community.
During the summer months Durand will paint a special picture, Saint Hubert, for the exhibition at Petworth. The artist will set the scene of St Hubert's conversion in Petworth Park.
Reflections on Durand's WHOLLY PICTURES by David Elkington
WHOLLY PICTURES are Durand's first artistic explorations of the English countryside. Working in and around Alfriston, Didling, Bosham and Petworth, the artist, amazed by the ancient and unearthly beauty of the South Downs, adapted his palette to the light-filled blues of sky and water, the greens of grass and woodland, and white clouds of an ethereal English sky; keeping Christian myths alive by placing Holy Land events in the context of the numinous Sussex landscape.
Viewing the progress of Durand's WHOLLY PICTURES is an excess of delight; one feels as a long departed yet graceful spirit, gliding gently over these paintings' lithe glazes, subtle impasto and Gnostic sense of being; one views Bosham, one discovers Didling, yet it is more; we see the light of holiness.
Durand, ever the poet within the painter, has rebuilt Jerusalem upon our shores and conveyed its innocence in the hues of the true painter's spectrum. He gives us truth, with which to open our mind's eye.
Durand's recent discovery of the eternal Sussex downlands encapsulates in these pictures that quality of symbolism to be found in the early Celtic Church. Durand's WHOLLY PICTURES, like the Sussex landscape, display the innocent hope of that bygone era. They are redolent of that special quality of the Celtic rite: its openness, its purity, but most of all – its uncomplicated virginity.
It is with a gladdened heart that one pauses before commenting on Annunciation, Saint Andrew, Didling. It is a meditation that does justice to the miracle at hand. To spend at least thirty minutes, letting the eyes brush over its beauty before going onwards is to have fulfilled a pilgrimage to every vista of the scene in front of the eyes, its emotion, its subtle languidity and its integrity.
The colour balance, specifically in the distant rolling downs, is restrained and well modulated. The muted tones draw the eye to the imperative foreground action. Here, there is a sense of urgency – an immediacy that reminds us that the erasure of Christianity is going on all too smoothly, all too stealthily. There could never be a more important time in history for these paintings, wholly pictures in every respect that demand to be looked at on a regular basis, to arrest a movement: these pictures are like the swell before a tide.
The gracious and graceful Gabriel, incorruptibly naked in his blue streak and with tousled hair, has an important message, not just for the exquisite Blessed Virgin, but also for all of us. The confirmation of Gabriel's blue-fire voltage message that arcs thorugh us is in the Mystic Lamb, who looks straight at us. Is the message one of joy or of despair? Do we hear echoes of the greatest of mysteries: the Resurrection?
Detail, Christ Walking on the Floodtide, Bosham, 2004
Is a picture like Christ Walking on the Floodtide, Bosham or the Mystic Lamb proof of a rebuilt Jerusalem in Sussex, or indeed, are all Durand’s WHOLLY PICTURES miracles – a rebirth of painting of religious painting in our post-secular age? It is clear that these pictures are acts of devotion, replete with memories and appealing to our higher selves. These are holistic pictures to be sure.
David Elkington, historian and author
DAVID MICHELANGELO Vatican, official portrait of H H JOHN PAUL II Commissioned by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. H H THE DALAI LAMA AT THE CONVENT
OF SAN ANSELMO THE COMMUNION OF MOTHER THERESA GRAND MASTER ANGELO DE MOJANA DI COLOGNA Palazzo Malta Rome ELIZABETH BOWEN ELIZABETH RITCHIE ANDREW CIECHANOWIECKI EMMA SARGEANT OLYMPIAD SYMPOSIUM LOGGIA Allegorical portrait of Craig Funke with Durand, Rubens, Titian and Michelangelo. DAME VERA LYNN ISABELL
KRISTENSEN ISABELL KRISTENSEN WITH HER DAUGHTER MARSYAS FLAYED PALESTRA AFTERNOON
OF APOLLO VULCAN'S NET THE BIRTH OF THE DIOSCURI HERMES & HECATE MAESTRO
(Craig Funke) THE TRIUMPH OF BEAUTY OVER TRUTH AND TIME (Josephine Cooke, Lady
Rumbold, Jane Cook) ELEANOR ROBINSON IN ROME MARCHESE EMILIO PUCCI DI BARSENTO
AL CAVALLO DONATELLA GRILLI MARIA VICTORIA CORTI GRAZZI EMANNUELLE CORTI GRAZZI
GUILIO & FRANCESCA MILLONIEPIPHANY THE CHOICE OF BROTHER MICHAEL GOOD
FRIDAY SUN INITIATION ORDINATION THREE MONKS CONTEMPLATING A STATUE OF APOLLO
ROUND ART H H DALAI LAMA WITH A SARUS CRANE H H DALAI LAMA, THE JEWEL IN THE
LOTUS STEPHEN BEAGLEY SVETLANA BERIOSOVA PETRUS BOSMAN ANTHONY DOWELL WAYNE
EAGLING MONICA MASON CARL MAYERS MERLE PARK JENNY PENNY MARQUERITE PORTER ANTOINETTE
SIBLEY DIANA VERE DAVID WALL ALEX BAUMANN SEBASTIAN COE LIBERACE GREG LOUGANIS
VOTIVE OFFERING SACRED CONVERSATION 2000 FORTUNA and PEGASUS ANNUNICATION, DIDLING
THE DEPARTURE OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA, POLESDON LACEY MYSTIC LAMB, DIDLING SOLOMON,
SHEBA & MENLIK, POLESDON LACEY INCARNATION AT BOSHAM ALICE, CAMILLA,
ISABELLE, LOUISA and ROSEANNA CURREY CHRISTOPHER, RAURI AND ISABEL EDWARDS ALBERT
O'ROURKE KRONOS HOODWINKERS, three allegorical portraits LA VITTORIA Eric Hebborn,
forger; Anthony Blunt as a cardinal BACON'S SELF-PORTRAIT AS INNOCENT X WITH
JOHN PAUL II IN THE STYLE OF DURAND Francis Bacon, painter SALIERI'S DREAM Brian
Sewell, critic STEPHANIE BEACHAM ARIA THE DIVE INTERMEZZO LUTEMAKER'S DAUGHTER
MEZZOGIORNO SAINTS COSMOS & DAMIAN TIME & ART THE ADORATION
OF THE MAGI CHRIST APPEARING TO MARY CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA CHRIST
ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES THE DENIAL OF CHRIST THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES
ST. FRANCIS ST. JEROME ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST ST. LUKE ST. SEBASTIAN BARBARA BERHNS
JULIAN HOSKING THE MARQUESS OF LONDONDERRY AND FREDERICK, VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH
GILLIAN REID-WALKER ANTHONY DOWELL AND ANTOINETTE SIBLEY LADY SOPHIA VANE-TEMPEST
STEWART FREDERICK, VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH AND HIS BROTHER SIR REGINALD VANE-TEMPEST
STEWART ST GEORGE DE LA RUE AS THE SPARTAN BOY LUDMILLA TEMERTY JO WEBSTER AFTER
THE RAPE OF GANYMEDE ARIADNE & THE MINOTAUR BIRTH OF APHRODITE BIRTH
OF PEGASUS CASTOR & POLLUX TRIUMPH OF PERSEPHONE Michael Courdin Natasha
Emmett Ralph Galley Guy Huot Robert La Palme Bill Lawson John Lawson Robert
MacCarron Elizabeth Ritchie Judith Robertson Joan Sutherland John Swain Louise
Temerty Ludmilla Temerty Kostia Temerty Sandy Turner LORD GOSFORD MANUEL AUGUSTO
MICHAEL COURDIN PETER AND CARMELLA ELLISTON CHARLES RITCHIE LUDMILLA TEMERTY
Montreal André Durand graduated from L'Ecole des Beaux Arts - teachers:
Suzanne Rivard, Albert Dumouchel and Jacques de Tonnancour Wins first prizes
in painting, engraving, perspective, art history, music theory and French literature.
One of the prizes, André Malraux's The Voices of Silence, was to
make an enduring impression upon the artist.The artist looks at the world through
the hole left by the unfinished section of his jigsaw puzzle. For the classical
ideal of beauty we may substitute some other value - but it is always through
this hole that, the artist looks, much as a man who has lost his key looks for
some implement to break open his door.André Malraux, The Voices of
Silence, Chapter 3, The Creative Process. trans. Stuart Gilbert, 1956. Awarded
a Canada Council travel grant to study the works of Titian, Michelangelo, Rubens
and other European painters and sculptors, in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Antwerp,
Brussels, Paris, Munich, Vienna, Venice, Florence, and Rome.Durand's PIETÀ
is the centrepiece of an exhibition of religious paintings at St. Regis College.
André Durand was born in Ottawa in 1947 and his work has already
shown the metaphysical quality of an authentic imagination plastique. He is
a figure painter for whom the arrangement of nudes in space, their relations
to it, and to one another, provide an inexhaustible subject for exploration.
Durand is more interested in the enigma involved in our ordinary ways of feeling
than in the exploitation or defiance of our ordinary ways of seeing. He is a
figurative painter out of love for and committment to man's emotional and moral
nature. It is the sort of involvement which is for him unavoidable at a period
of history where the root paradox of human nature is more clearly manifest than
ever before, and even threatens to overwhelms us entirely. Durand believes that
the creative person strives to restore to man the whole of his nature in a contradictory
world where, while the possibilities for its development are perhaps greater
than ever before, the disintegrating forces working against it are proportionately
greater. E. S. Ritchie 1967. portrait: Michael Courdin Natasha Emmett Ralph
Galley Guy Huot Robert La Palme Bill Lawson John Lawson Robert MacCarron Elizabeth
Ritchie Judith Robertson Joan Sutherland John Swain Louise Temerty Ludmilla
Temerty Kostia Temerty Sandy Turner. Exhibition, Galerie l'Art Vivant Greece
From his base in Athens established at the Canadian Consulate under the auspices
of Angelina Waterman, Durand draws extensively at the National Museum of Antiquites
and travels to classical sites throughout Greece. Like the three incarnations
of Durand’s inspiration, Michelangelo, Rubens and Titian, the artist
gathers his sources from Ancient Greece and the antique. A Classical education
and his introduction as a boy to the culture and mythology of Ancient Greece
have far outweighed any other influences on his work, and throughout his career
to date they have remained the constants amongst great variation. Although Durand’s
roots are in the antique the possibilities of interpretation with regard to
his pictures are unbounded. Myths are hinted at, stories which we know well
are mysteriously suggested, but we are more or less free to decide upon our
own narrative. Brian Balfour Oatts, CLASSICAL FRAGMENTS. 1969 London Establishes
a studio under the patronage of the Canadian High Commissioner the Hon. Charles
Ritchie CBE who introduces Durand to TS Eliot, Kenneth Clark, Kenneth Tynan,
Elizabeth Bowen, and Elizabeth Frink. Petrus Bosman and Brian Masters commission
Durand to paint the principal dancers of the Royal Ballet, including Anthony
Dowell, Wayne Eagling and Julian Hosking. Major works sold to British and European
collectors. Mythology THE TROJANS Sponsored by Elizabeth Ritchie, Durand paints
fifteen pictures inspired by Homer's Iliad. The series is completed in 1972.
Lord Gosford. Manuel Augusto, portrait, Durand. Charles Ritchie, portrait, Durand.
portrait LORD GOSFORD MANUEL AUGUSTO MICHAEL COURDIN PETER AND CARMELLA ELLISTON
CHARLES RITCHIE LUDMILLA TEMERTY ELIZABETH BOWEN ELIZABETH RITCHIE Durand's
portrait of the Irish novelist Elizabeth Bowen was commissioned by the Hon.
Charles Ritchie CBE and featured in the National Portrait Gallery RECENT ACQUISITIONS
exhibition. It was was acquired for the permanent collection and remains one
of the most popular pictures. Elizabeth Ritchie as Sarah Baigneuse, Durand.
Marguerite Porter. 1973 London Exhibition TERPSICHORE, St Paul's Church, Covent
Garden,sponsored by the soloist dancer Petrus Bosman. The first exhibition of
paintings to be held at the Actors' Church, TERPSIN AID IN AIIN AID OF CHRISTIAN CARE ASSOCIATION WWW.STONEPILLOW.ORG.UK life-size portraits
of Royal Ballet danincers including Manuel Augusto, Anthony Dowell, Jenny Penny
and Merle Park. Monica Mason with Durand. Portrait Royal Ballet principals:
STEPHEN BEAGLEY SVETLANA BERIOSOVA PETRUS BOSMAN ANTHONY DOWELL WAYNE EAGLING
MONICA MASON CARL MAYERS MERLE PARK JENNY PENNY MARQUERITE PORTER ANTOINETTE
SIBLEY DIANA VERE DAVID WALL Exhibition ANGELS, Helicon Gallery, Conduit Street,
London. Portugal First visit to the Algarve. André Durand, Florence.
1976 Venice, Florence and Rome. Studying 15th, 16th and 17th century Italian
pictures and sculpture with Julian Hosking. The Miraculous Draught of Fishes,
Durand. St Sebastien, Durand. St. Francis & Bishop Guido, sketch, Durand.
Exhibition FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE, St Paul's Church, Covent Garden. Sacred Fourteen
paintings inspired by the Synoptic Gospels and Christian legends. THE ADORATION
OF THE MAGI CHRIST APPEARING TO MARY CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA CHRIST
ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES THE DENIAL OF CHRIST THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES
ST. FRANCIS ST. JEROME ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST ST. LUKE ST. SEBASTIAN Stephanie
Beacham posing Durand with Stephanie Beacham. Alistair, Lord Londonderry and
his son Frederick, portrait, Durand. Gillian Reid-Walker, portrait, Durand.
St George de la Rue as the Spartan Boy detail, Durand. Jo Webster, Expectant
Arch, Durand. Lady Sophia Vane-Tempest Stewart, portrait detail, Durand. Vane-Tempest
Stewart. 1978 London Exhibition A DECADE OF PORTRAITS, Aberbach Fine Art, Saville
Row. California Exhibition LONDON PAINTINGS, Geona Gallery, Santa Barbara. Portrait
BARBARA BERHNS JULIAN HOSKING THE MARQUESS OF LONDONDERRY AND FREDERICK, VISCOUNT
CASTLEREAGH GILLIAN REID-WALKER ANTHONY DOWELL AND ANTOINETTE SIBLEY LADY SOPHIA
VANE-TEMPEST STEWART FREDERICK, VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH AND HIS BROTHER SIR REGINALD
VANE-TEMPEST STEWART ST GEORGE DE LA RUE AS THE SPARTAN BOY LUDMILLA TEMERTY
JO WEBSTER Few things appal Durand more than a portrait which consciously seeks
to delve. All that can be conveyed by the sitter in life can be shown in an
expression or a penetrating gaze and all that can be hidden by a face can be
given away in the look of an eye or a half stopped smile. That portraits could
have a further, deeper level not indicated by any symbolism or implied by any
careless facial gesture is not a preoccupation for Durand. It is his candid
acceptance of portraiture as a two-dimensional science which intrigues when
faced with an example of one of Durand’s romantic likenesses, because
it could be sworn that below the stillest surface rages a torrent of opinion
and emotion. Brian Balfour Oatts. Pisces: Christ and St. Peter on the Sea of
Galilee, Durand. Pisces: Christ and St. Peter on the Sea of Galilee Gemini:
Castor & Pollux, Durand. 1981 Edinburgh Exhibition MIRACLES AND METAMORPHOSES,
Adam House, Edinburgh Festival 1981. Mythological pictures based on the zodiac.
AFTER THE RAPE OF GANYMEDE ARIADNE & THE MINOTAUR BIRTH OF APHRODITE
BIRTH OF PEGASUS CASTOR & POLLUX TRIUMPH OF PERSEPHONE Unlike any other
contemporary artist, Durand seems to be immersed in the antique. Today he stands
alone in the creation of heroic images and grand narratives - the transient
taste in art rests elsewhere - and for this reason alone, his paintings have
not been fully understood. Durand’s compositions are triggered by
myth but involve a search for purity and that elusive concept of ideal beauty.
In ancient times Greek sculptors created an idealised beauty by combining individual
parts of the bodies of different models to create the perfect type. It is worth
remembering that every time we criticise a figure because the legs are too long,
or the shoulders too wide, we admit that an ideal beauty exists. Durand varies
this idealization by creating a particular feeling of elegance in his pictures,
partly through careful choice of surroundings, and partly by posing his subjects
in complex attitudes not unlike Italian Mannerist painters tend to do. Portugal
Nazare and the Algarve Durand absorbs new inspiration, developing a vibrant
palette and working with new, broader brushwork. Mystic Marriage, detail, Durand.
allegory. MYSTIC MARRIAGE is Durand's first allegorical picture, a genre of
visual image popular in the renaissance invested with philosophical connotations.
The artist has restaged the Royal wedding on a beach in Nazare, Portugal and
conjures a bride in the form of Diana, princess of Wales to focus attention
on the deeper meanings within the picture. Durand’s subsequent allegorical
pictures the princess became an icon for the artist - a symbolic presence -
which he used to stunning effect to reflect on issues as diverse as AIDS (VOTIVE
OFFERING, 1987) and classical mythology (FORTUNA, 2000). Rome. Portrait. Vatican,
official portrait of H H JOHN PAUL II. Commissioned by the Sovereign Military
Order of Malta. Unveiled 1983 Heim Gallery, London. H H THE DALAI LAMA AT THE
CONVENT OF SAN ANSELMO. THE COMMUNION OF MOTHER THERESA GRAND MASTER ANGELO
DE MOJANA DI COLOGNA Palazzo Malta Rome Andrew Ciechanowiecki, portrait, Durand
Andrew Ciechanowiecki 1984 Montreal and Toronto Exhibitions, Musèe
Ramsay, Montreal, and City Hall, Toronto. H H JOHN PAUL II H H THE DALAI LAMA
AT THE CONVENT OF SAN ANSELMO COMMUNION OF MOTHER THERESA AT THE HOLY DOOR MYSTIC
MARRIAGE SECRET BETWEEN BROTHERS ANDREW CIECHANOWIECKI EMMA SARGEANT First of
five portraits of Alex Baumann, Canadian swimmer and double Olympic gold medal.
Olympiad Symposium, Durand Commissioned by Lord Ennals for the United Nations
Association to inaugurate Peace Year 1986. Acquired by The Aquatic Hall of Fame
and Museum of Canada, Winnipeg. Featured on the cover of Arts Review September
13th, 1985. Robert Smith, the Director of UNICEF, has had the perspicacity to
discover Durand and Lord Ennals, in his capacity as Chairman of the United Nations
Association of Great Britain and Ireland, commissioned the large narrative composition
OLYMPIAD SYMPOSIUM, to inaugurate Year of Peace 1986. Durand has taken as his
theme youthful, multi racial ideology and the picture he has painted is based
on the Olympic ideal. Durand’s admiration for the sound mind, sound
body ethic is defiantly bold, even aggressive. The five swimmers are posed in
an empty Olympic pool in Rhodes. Clad only in their Speedos the five swimmers
link hands symbolically, passing the Olympic flame, spirit of the Vestal Virgins
and the Olympics, between themselves. A little boy, the spirit of hope for the
future, poses winningly with his father, in the bottom left corner of the composition.
Rather like the backdrop in a theatre the Acropolis at Lindos is set behind
and above the empty pool. In this complex composition Durand’s considerable
knowledge of the nude has resulted in harmony between the athletes: the classical
cross composition is cleverly echoed by setting the athletes in size order with
the tallest, black swimmer to the fore. The colour scheme is harsh and almost
contemporary in the bottom half, with turquoise shadows; and the soft and ‘ancient’
colouring is reserved for the top half of the composition. This startling juxtaposition
of colour schemes, united by the olive tree, traditional symbol of the Olympics,
intergrates the Ancient and Modern Olympic ideal. ECCE EQUUS, four large compositions
inspired by the Book of Revelation, to commemorate the fortieth anniversary
of the United Nations Children's Fund in the Year of Children's Rights. Unveiled
by Jeanne Sauvé, the Governor General of Canada at the National Arts
Centre: The powerful message conveyed by these four major works cannot be ignored
if we are to offer the children of a tomorrow a better world in which to live.
Jeanne Sauvé Greg Louganis, sketch, Durand. Greg Louganis (study).
portrait ALEX BAUMANN SEBASTIAN COE LIBERACE GREG LOUGANIS. Votive Offering,
modello, Durand. Votive Offering. To commemorate the visit of Diana, Princess
of Wales to the Broderip Ward, Middlesex Hospital. Unveiled at St James' Church,
Piccadilly, London, November. Diana, Princess of Wales with Sunnye Shermann,
study, Durand. Diana, Princess of Wales with Sunnye Sherman, the first American
to die from AIDS related illness. As a depiction of salvation and sanctification
through martyrdom, VOTIVE OFFERING implicitly protests the existential fatalism
and dispiriting nihilism that have darkened much ‘modern art’
since the Second World War. It is a piece of defiantly un modern art, perhaps
even anti modern art, in its enthusiastic homage to the Renaissance. But ‘homage’
is perhaps too weak a word for Durand’s bold appropriation of Renaissance
imagery; so too is allusion. VOTIVE OFFERING not only alludes to votive offerings
and altarpieces by a host of Renaissance artists but also reflects aspects of
their deeper, densely symbolic designs such as triptych structure and sacred
symmetry. Perhaps return is the best word to describe Durand’s approach
to his cinquecento sources. He has returned to them in a spiritual and philosophical
as well as a visual sense in order to recreate something divinely powerful,
something harmoniously healing in the pristine, yet archaic art of idealised
forms. Prof. James Miller, Kingston University, London, Ontario. In combining
two very real women, Diana, Princess of Wales and Sunnye Sherman, in a present-day
hospital ward, with archetypal representations of saints and patients, Durand
has set the modern scourge of Aids in an historic context creating an atmosphere
of timelessness and healing. Rose Elliot. The power of Votive Offering is to
evoke so many different responses: painful sympathy, warm compassion and ardent
admiration. Baroness Jay. Votive Offering is the heir to five centuries of European
figure painting. Cecil Gould. I have been studying your work for more than ten
years now, and Votive Offering is the most important picture I have yet seen.
I agree with Cecil Gould this masterpiece is the heir to five centuries of European
figure painting. Bless you for the splendid work you have done and are doing.
Alistair Cooke. 1988 London Canterbury Edinburgh Glasgow Liverpool Peterborough
Wells Winchester Montreal. Exhibition, VOTIVE OFFERING, the subject of a lecture
by art historian Cecil Gould at Canada House, London and the source of several
essays exploring the ways in which artists respond to AIDS. The picture made
a pilgrimage jouney to cathedrals in England and Scotland, and was shown at
the International AIDS Conference in Montreal. Durand begins two life-size portraits
of H H Dalai Lama. H H Dalai Lama with a Sarus Crane, portrait, Durand. H H
the Dalai Lama with a Sarus Crane. 1989 Second sittings with the Dalai Lama
in Strasbourg, resulting in two portraits posed at the behest of Labour peer
Lord Ennals. H H DALAI LAMA WITH A SARUS CRANE H H DALAI LAMA, THE JEWEL IN
THE LOTUS Durand attends the Council of Europe 'Colloquy on the Universality
of Human Rights in a Pluralistic World'. San Miniato al Monte. Florence. As
the guest of the Benedictine monks at San Miniato al Monte, Durand was the first
artist since Michelangelo to have lived within the monastery. Durand began a
series of paintings inspired by the life and miracles of St Benedict. Studies
extensively the archaeological site at Paestum. 1990 Arezzo, San Sepulchro,
and Florence. Continued work on sacred pictures started at San Miniato and made
exhaustive studies of the pictures of Piero della Francesca. EPIPHANY THE CHOICE
OF BROTHER MICHAEL GOOD FRIDAY SUN INITIATION ORDINATION THREE MONKS CONTEMPLATING
A STATUE OF APOLLO ROUND ART Marchese Emilio Pucci di Barsento al Cavallo, portrait,
Durand. MARCHESE EMILIO PUCCI DI BARSENTO AL CAVALLO DONATELLA GRILLI MARIA
VICTORIA CORTI GRAZZI EMANNUELLE CORTI GRAZZI GUILIO & FRANCESCA MILLONI
On 7 October 1991 there was a fire at the warehouse of James Bourlet &
Sons Limited. At the warehouse, but within a strong room, a number of valuable
works of art were stored; these included some of Durand pictures as well as
works by Hockney, Frink, a pastel painted by Degas and bronzes by Rodin. Durand's
works in progress, his library, archive and studio equipment, as well as his
entire personal collection of pictures by other artists are destroyed. Among
the pictures lost was Durand's VOTIVE OFFERING of 1987. By October 1992 Durand
began to paint again following the fire. Working with the pictures blocked in
at San Miniato, Durand introduces new elements, in particular the symbol of
the male nude, juxtaposing pagan and Christian iconography. Sebastiano del Piombo
Death of Adonis, 1513 Uffizi Florence. Exhibition of DEATH OF ADONIS, after
Sebastiano del Piombo's painting of the same title, unveiled by Cecil Gould
at Academia Italiana, London. Dame Vera Lynn unveils her portrait by Durand
at the Imperial War Museum. DAME VERA LYNN ISABELL KRISTENSEN ISABELL KRISTENSEN
WITH HER DAUGHTER MIRANDA TWISS MAESTRO (Craig Funke) THE TRIUMPH OF BEAUTY
OVER TRUTH AND TIME (Josephine Cooke, Lady Rumbold, Jane Cook) ELEANOR ROBINSON
IN ROME Three Princes, allegorical portrait Prince of Wales with Harry and William
Three Princes THREE PRINCES Allegorical portrait of the Prince of Wales with
his sons, William and Harry. Commissioned by George Elrick of Amphion Art for
the Grand Order of the Water Rats; unveiled at the Café Royal, November.
Loggia, allegorical portrait Crag Funke with Durand, Rubens, Michelangelo, Rubens.
Pegasus, detail, allegorical portrait, Durand. Re-explores classical sites,
Corinth, Olympia, Epidauros and Delphi in preparation for CLASSICAL FRAGMENTS.
London PEGASUS The prototype for the fair-haired hero on the winged stallion
and hence the nimble pose, was the spirit of the classical dancer Julian Hosking,
a muse for Durand not just as a subject for his painting, but in life. Hosking’s
career with the Royal Ballet was distinguished but brief – he died
in 1989 at the age of thirty-four – but not before he combined his
dancing with studies of Egyptology, astrology and Italian painting. Hosking
worked with Durand for over a decade and was often to be found researching subject
matter for the artist as well as embodying for Durand the ideal male nude. A
pivotal partnership, Durand pays homage to his dancer in PEGASUS. Exhibition,
CLASSICAL FRAGMENTS, Archeus Fine Art, Bond Street, London. Durand continues
to explore classical subject matter through the vision of Michelangelo. MARSYAS
FLAYED PALESTRA AFTERNOON OF APOLLO VULCAN'S NET THE BIRTH OF THE DIOSCURI HERMES
& HECATE Durand, like Winckelmann (1717-1768) believes that There is
but one way for the moderns to become great, and perhaps unequalled; I mean,
by imitating the ancients. Classical mythology has been a source of inspiration
for the Canadian born Durand since he began painting as a boy. Today, as one
the foremost painters in the world, Durand’s passion for Greek myth
is evident in every picture he paints but is a view of classical mythology in
the post Christian era. The advent of Christ requires a decisive change in representation
and understanding of Greek mythology. Durand mythological pictures demonstrate
a new, Neomodern approach to the ancient Greek myths. Megakles Rogakos, art
historian and curator. London, HOODWINKERS, three allegorical portraits LA VITTORIA
Eric Hebborn, forger; Anthony Blunt as a cardinal BACON'S SELF-PORTRAIT AS INNOCENT
X WITH JOHN PAUL II IN THE STYLE OF DURAND Francis Bacon, painter SALIERI'S
DREAM Brian Sewell. Diana Princess of Wales as the Roman goddess Fortuna, unveiled
at the Belvedere in Holland Park, London. BBC OMNIBUS, September The Art Of
Diana Durand appears first on the program and the prophetic nature of his allegorical
portraits of Diana Princess of Wales is discussed.Exhibition ITALIANATE SUBJECTS,
Albemarle Gallery Dedicated to Durand's friend, teacher and colleague Craig
Funke. Sixteen pictures painted in Florence and London demonstrating the persistent
influence of Italian renaissance art and neo-platonic philosophy on Durand's
work. ARIA THE DIVE INTERMEZZO LUTEMAKER'S DAUGHTER MEZZOGIORNO SAINTS COSMOS
DAMIAN TIME ART SACRED CONVERSATION 2000 A sacra conversazione commemorating
the beatification of Padre Pio, the Vatican, 2 May 1999. Exhibited at the Jesuit
Church, Farm Street, Mayfair, June - December. Official portrait of H H JOHN
PAUL II on temporary loan to the Brompton Oratory, courtesy of the Sovereign
Military Order of Malta. ART'S CONTENT - ELITISM - THE PUBLIC Artist's Residency
and Exhibition Stanley Picker Gallery , Kingston University FORTUNA and PEGASUS
are both mythological pictures but there is an obvious difference. Durand seeks
to involve a wider audience with Fortuna for the goddess has the face of the
'people princess'. The few square inches that render Diana, Princess of Wales
profile, are what makes this essentially mythological picture accessible to
the public in a way that the unknown face of the hero mounted on Pegasus can
never do. The media is the surrogate patron of FORTUNA. An earlier, similar
composition by Durand, ECLIPSE, was unveiled in 1996 and was reproduced worldwide,
even on the front page of The Times of India. Some of Durand doubts about the
accessibility of mythological subject matter must have been answered by the
broadsheets and redtops, which reported that it was not just any sea nymph or
princess of the waves they had identified in ECLIPSE. No. Even without her cornucopia
and rudder obscure symbols to be sure, but customary to this deity, they had
recognised the heraldic apparition dancing on a crystal ball in mid ocean with
or without, her entourage of tritons, dolphins and hippocamps as Fortuna herself:
She has played the blushing bride, the dutiful wife and the patron saint of
a thousand good causes. Yesterday the cartoon life of Diana, Princess of Wales,
took a classical turn when a new portrait cast her in an altogether new role:
the Roman goddess Fortuna (The Guardian 2nd October 1996). Armando Bayraktari,
painter and curator London, Syros, Athens, Milan, Sussex and Suffolk Durand's
first artistic explorations of the English countryside. Working in and around
Aldeburgh, Didling, Bosham and Polesdon Lacy, he begins his WHOLLY PICTURES
series, still in progress. Impressed by the ancient beauty of the South Downs,
Durand adapts his palette to the light-filled blues of sky and water, the greens
of grass and woodland, and white clouds of England, keeping Christian myths
alive by placing Holy Land events in rural England. ANNUNICATION, DIDLING THE
DEPARTURE OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA, POLESDON LACEY MYSTIC LAMB, DIDLING SOLOMON,
SHEBA MENLIK, POLESDON LACEY INCARNATION AT BOSHAM Viewing the progress of Durand
WHOLLY PICTURES is an apotheosis of delight; I feel as a long departed yet graceful
spirit, gliding gently over these paintings' lithesome glazes and impasto with
their crisp blue skies and Gnostic sense of being; I see Bosham, I see Didling,
but also I see the light of holiness - yet it is more; for I use the term apotheosis
guardedly. Durand, ever the poet within the painter, has seen Jerusalem upon
our shores and encapsulated its innocence in the hues of the true painter;rsquo;s
music. He gives us truth, with which to open our mind eye. I had little noticed
some time ago that Durand;rsquo;s recent discovery of the eternal Sussex downlands
so profoundly encapsulates in these pictures that quality of symbolism to be
found in the early Celtic Church; for Durand WHOLLY PICTURES, like the Sussex
landscape, display the innocent hope of that bygone era: they are redolent of
that special quality of the Celtic rite: its openness, its purity, but most
of all its nigh unblemished virginity. Am I glad that I waited before commenting
on ANNUNCIATION AT DIDLING? I've spent the past 30 minutes letting my eyes,
yet again, brush over its beauty before writing this. The colour balance, specifically
in the distant rolling downs, is restrained and well modulated. The muted tones
draw the eye to the imperative foreground action. Here, there is a sense of
urgency - an immediacy that reminds us that the erasing of Christianity is going
on all too smoothly, all too stealthily. There could never be a more important
time in history for these paintings, wholly pictures in every respect that demand
to be looked at on a regular basis, to arrest a movement: these pictures are
like the swell before a tide. The young and graceful Gabriel, nude and with
tousled, hip hair - carried within that time sensitive 'blue streak' - has an
important message not just for the exquisite prepubescent Blessed Virgin, but
for all of us. The confirmation of Gabriel's message is in the eyes of the Mystic
Lamb, who looks directly at us objectively. Is the message one of joy or of
despair? The foreground colour scheme is calculated to emphasize the modern
predicament we are in. The blue of the peacock and the blue current rushing
about Gabriel are echoes of the greatest of mysteries: the Resurrection. In
this 21st century ANNUNCIATION AT DIDLING as in the haunting interpretation
of INCARNATION AT BOSHAM, or in PASIPHAE, we are privy to a mirage ; or is it
a miracle? Is it a rebirth of painting? These pictures are acts of devotion,
replete with memories and appealing to our higher selves. They are holistic
pictures to be sure. David Elkington, historian and author. SUSSEX CHILDREN
AND LANDSCAPES for the benefit of St. Richards Hospital, Chichester ALICE, CAMILLA,
ISABELLE, LOUISA and ROSEANNA CURREY CHRISTOPHER, RAURI AND ISABEL EDWARDS ALBERT
O'ROURKE