From an Empty Panel

It's been a long time since I posted any art. This is Manfred W. Jurgens' Portrait of Ulrich Tulkur, Actor and Musican (2005) using egg tempera (pigments ground into a traditional mixture of egg as a binder, very difficult). Mr. Jurgens is sometimes grouped under the "New Realist School." The word school is sort of a misnomer--it's an inclination and handy label, not a school. Here is a quote of his, as stated at Wikipedia:

"I can only set a functionalism, a powerful silent against today's inflation of pictures. I believe that it is the attraction of the direct view which enables insights into the soul. When colour becomes not only skin, cloth, water and sky but also soul, then I have overcome the empty panel."

Many people think contemporary art has degenerated into a splat and sh*t kind of school--I will say that some of that is interesting and some, gratuitous. In the meantime, other contemporary artists still work in  traditional media and with traditional subjects. They cannot, however, think exactly like Rembrandt did or portray the world as Chardin did. The world has changed far too much.

But sometimes an individual brings eternal values or old disciplines to the contemporary world and makes it resonate for us. And isn't this a marvelous example?