| I was born in England in 1944. I worked and exhibited in London and Southern England until moving to New Zealand in 1973. Since my arrival, I have lived and worked as a full-time painter in Christchurch. I moved to New York in 1989, where I worked fro a year and exhibited in Manhattan and London. I am now resettled in Christchurch as a full-time painter. When first invited to submit work for the International Florence Biennale, I was naturally elated, but at the same time I was somewhat concerned as to what I should paint. I began thinking of Italy and of that country’s great history, especially the Renaissance. |
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Keith Morant is based in New Zealand.
I was born in England in 1944. I worked and exhibited in London and Southern England until moving to New Zealand in 1973. Since my arrival, I have lived and worked as a full-time painter in Christchurch. I moved to New York in 1989, where I worked fro a year and exhibited in Manhattan and London. I am now resettled in Christchurch as a full-time painter.
When first invited to submit work for the International Florence Biennale, I was naturally elated, but at the same time I was somewhat concerned as to what I should paint. I began thinking of Italy and of that country’s great history, especially the Renaissance. I had recently been to New York and visited the wonderful collection of 16th- and 17th-century masters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When viewing them, I came to a new understanding about the religiosity inherent in the triptych. I wanted to express something that gave an awareness of history and art yet simultaneously alluded to the transience and illusions that people are subject to.
This triptych, called Ars Longa, is the result of many levels of deep influence and considerations on art and life. Besides Hippocrates (who said, “art is long, life is short”), many great minds from Plato and Pythagoras to Kepler and Kandinsky come to bear on the predominant symbols on each canvas. These symbols are (as are the primary colors) universally associated with art. Examples that come to mind are the late 18th-century spontaneous ink painting of “circle, triangle, square” by the Japanese Zen priest and artist Sengai. Or Cezanne’s advice to his protégé Emile Bernard in 1904 that he “should treat nature by the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone.”
When I have purposely used the initial words of Hippocrates’ great maxim as the title, I am well aware that, according to scholarly mores, his words may sometimes be misconstrued. However the general acceptance of the meaning is that, while life flourishes so briefly, the ongoing communication and nourishment of human creativity never dies. This is enough to indicate my purpose.
There is little more that can be said, as the painting will have its own life. I have been a painter for over five decades now and I regard this triptych as one of my (if not the) most important works to date.
