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MANIFESTO OF VISIONARY ART
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of Cherub paintings - each angel composed, variously, of malachite, amethyst, opel, onyx, etc.
"An angel", Mati Klarwein reminds us, "is a being whose silhouette, or hands or eyes... can evoke and impregnate you with a state of utter bliss bordering on ecstasy." (55)
But it is particularly the art of Robert Venosa which offers us sidereal visions of angels, seraphs, and cherubs in flowing crystalline form, all graced with glistening water drops and semi-precious stones. The artist takes obvious delight in rendering these swirling forms and undulating surfaces, which have clearly descended from a higher world."The paintbrush is the key," Venosa writes, "that allows entry into the divine mysteries." (56)
It is not mere chance that the Sacred has also been seen to reside in flowers - those many-petalled unfoldings of brilliant colour, light, and form. In western mysticism, there is the Rosa Mystica, the vision of God as a Celestial Rose described by Dante in the Paradiso. In the East, the many-petalled lotus, each inscribed with a sacred syllable, in whose centre lies the mysterious jewel.
For Huxley, a flower appeared to him, in an alternative state, as "pulsing with indecipherable mystery." (57) For Fuchs, in his later years an unending series of flower paintings flowed from within, inspired by child-like joy:"The peacock's plume of an inexhaustible kaleidoscope, unbound by mythology or religion, unfolded before my eyes in a continuing process of change, with every imaginable combination of colours."(58) And for Klarwein, the landscapes of Israel, Tunisia, and Mallorca became a playground of infinitely detailed vegetation, causing him to exclaim, "Oh sundazed ecstasies of God-knows-what chemical reaction at the sight of a motionless palm tree... There are
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Image opposite: ROBERT VENOSA: ANGEL
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