Chez Sphinx 1973

Abdul Mati Klarwein made "Chez Sphinx" using oil paint, layering up thin glazes of pigment, and gradually building up the forms with a super-fine brush. I can imagine him wrestling with this painting, trying to get the right balance between the hallucinatory and the real. What does it mean, all this symbolism? That floating head in the clouds, a mother and child, and a skeleton in the ground? The artist asks us to consider what is beyond the threshold: life, death, love, and connection. You get the feeling that the artist is inviting you to look beyond the veil. Klarwein’s paintings are often psychedelic dreamscapes, channeling the subconscious. He's in conversation with artists like Ernst Fuchs and the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, who also explored the world of dreams and the occult. Painting, for Klarwein, was a way of accessing hidden dimensions, opening up a space for contemplation and wonder.