JKK FINE ARTS
Gallery of Modern Symbolism
The MEWS Courtyard at 594 Valley Rd.
Upper Montclair, NJ 07043
Tel. (973) 744 0111
E-mail: jk@...

http://www.jkkfinearts.com

Gallery Hours: Tue. to Fri. 11 am to 7 pm, Sat. 10 am to 7 pm, Sun. by
Appoint.

JKK FINE ARTS proudly presents

NARCISSUS

Exhibition of new paintings, sculptures, drawings, and photographs by
established international artists: Daniel Barkley, Luigi Casalino, Joanna
Chrobak, Chawky Frenn, Michel Henricot, Marek Koczela, Aleksandra Nowak,
Valeriy Skrypka, Damian Wojtowicz, and Piotr Woroniec

View the samples at:
http://www.jkkfinearts.com/exhibitions/narcissus/Narcissus.pdf

March April May 2007

Against the legend about Narcissus, ascribing him as a great beauty,
Narcissus was an ordinary young man with rather vulgar facial features,
unclear complexion , broad shoulders and elongated limbs. He resembled
exactly those silly boys with an electric guitar or a movie heroes, who
search in vain the sense of life on the bottom of the empty soul and who,
after the idiotic adventures end up sticky. After all, the sober
spectator remembers only from this muddle of drinking, sleeping and
fighting, the make of the car, which carried them kindly to the chasm.
Caravaggio offered the most truthful portrait of Narcissus to us. This
painting hangs right now in the Villa Borghese and shows a gamin, a one of
those who kill his benefactor with a fence plank. The gamin bends over the
puddle. The painter Caravaggio knew that, he could be trusted.
Zbigniew Herbert Narcissus

The earliest Greek variation of the tale of Narcissus originates in the
region known as Boeotia. Narcissus lived in the city of Thespiae. A young
man, Ameinias, was in love with Narcissus, but he rejected Ameinias' love.
He grew tired of Ameinias' affections and sent him a present of a sword.
Ameinias killed himself with the sword in front of Narcissus' door and as
he died, he called curses upon Narcissus. One day Narcissus fell in love
with his own reflection in a spring and, in desperation, killed himself.
Narcissus is another example among several of a beautiful young man who
spurned sex and died as a result. His myth has much in common with those
of Adonis and Jasminus. In the Roman version of Ovid, Narcissus is the son
of the river god Cephisus and the water-nymph Liriope. Tiresias told his
parents that the boy would live long life if he did not look at himself.
Many nymphs, girls, and boys fell in love with him but he rejected them.
One of these rejected nymphs was Echo, so devasteted that she withdrew
into a lonely spot and faded until all that was left was a plaintive
whisper. The goddess Nemesis heard the rejected girls prayers for
vengeance and arranged for Narcissus to fall in love with his own
reflection. He stayed watching his reflection in the water until he died.
Both of these stories give an origin to the narcissus flower, which grew
where Narcissus died. The miniature daffodil Narcissus Tazetta is believed
to be the oldest daffodil in cultivation, known to the ancient Greeks.
Because the flowers of many species of narcissi droop mournfully, it was
long thought to be an omen of death, but at the same time, because they
are either the white of purity or yellow like sunlight, they can symbolize
wisdom, hope, and joy. Narcissus myth, as a subject, has been undertaken
by many artists in the past centuries. The earliest traces of it survived
in the Pompeian wall frescoes. Most famous yet are paintings by such
artists, as: Caravaggio, Poussin, Daumier, Moreau, Waterhouse, or more
contemporary - Dali (Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937). Narcissus was also
a beloved subject of many writers, mostly poets, for centuries, e.g. for
Ovid, Ronsard in XVI c., Mallarme, Baudelaire, Valery, Gide, or Rainer
Maria Rilke.

For more information or additional photos, please contact Jan K. Kapera,
Gallery Director, at 973 744 0111 or jk@...

Look for our SALOME & John the Baptist exhibit May to July 2007