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MAN
ON FIRE
Mark
Vallen 2006
Oil on wood panel
11 3/4" x 23 3/4"
Private collection
Here's
what the artist said about his painting:
"As
a teenager I saw a reproduction of the mural, Man of
Fire, created in 1938 by the Mexican Muralist, José
Clemente Orozco. The artist had painted a gigantic blazing
man in the cupola of the Hospicio Cabañas, in Guadalajara.
It was an image that had a profound and lasting effect upon
me, but little did I know many years later I would be painting
my own apocalyptic vision of a man on fire.
In
1987, during a Los Angeles demonstration at the Westwood
Federal Building against the visit of the president of Iran
to the United Nations - a rally that also drew attention
to U.S. involvement in the Iran-Iraq war, Iranian writer
and antiwar activist Neusha Farrahi, self-emulated in the
ultimate act of protest. Farrahi, 31, poured gasoline over
his body and set himself on fire before a stunned crowd
of thousands. While I did not see Farrahi's act firsthand,
it haunted me for years. A friend who witnessed Farrahi's
martyrdom supplied me with the photos that eventually became
the basis for my painting.
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