The Memory of the Apse 2007

This painting, *The Memory of the Apse* by Marin Gherasim, is a collision of earth tones and fierce reds, structured around an apse-like form. I wonder how Gherasim built up these layers, the brown almost swallowing the red, but never quite winning. I feel the artist working, adding lines and shapes, scraping away, trying to find something, maybe a feeling or idea, who knows? But the gold section at the top, what’s going on there? It is as if some holy Byzantine relic has been shattered and then reformed in the language of abstract painting. Thinking about the relationship of colour here, the sharp jolt of red against that dense brown, it is a bit like Rothko, but rawer, more urgent. It's a reminder that we're all swimming in this same sea of painting, pulling from the past, pushing towards something new. Each gesture echoes and responds to the ones that came before.