Konstanta 2010

This painting, Konstanta, by Dragan Ilić Di Vogo, shows a Madonna and child, but it's not your grandma's religious icon. I imagine Di Vogo in his studio, pushing paint around with a brush or maybe even his fingers, building up layers of color and texture, letting the image emerge from a kind of hazy dream-state. There are flowers and beads, a broken egg and other assorted detritus, arranged around the base of the Madonna. Is he making a comment on the commercialization of religious imagery? I think he must be! The palette is muted, the colors muddied, like a memory fading with time, yet the brushwork is vigorous, full of energy. There's a push and pull between the figurative and the abstract, a tension that keeps the eye moving, searching for meaning. And maybe that's the point: meaning isn't fixed or simple but something we create ourselves, in conversation with the artist, with history, and with our own experiences.