Abstract Expressionist Painting of a Beggar
by Andrea Beech
Merci
This artwork is full of imagery.
The subject is a beggar dressed in a long flowing gray robe that covers his
entire body from head to toe. The cowl over the beggar's head is
reminiscent of the robe worn by the figure of the Grim Reaper, albeit that
the robe is gray, not black One imagines that the beggar lives with
death close at hand.
The person of whom the beggar is
beseeching alms is not in view, however in the background is the planet
Earth, positioned such that it rests in the outstretched hand of the beggar
suggesting perhaps that the cry for food and water goes out to the entire
world. Another interpretation of this might be a reference to the
beatitude that "The meek shall inherit the earth".
A wide vertical red stripe
descends the from top to bottom, through the beggar's shoulders and back,
suggestive of the cross he bears and the blood of Christ flowing down the
staff of his cross.
The title of the work is also a
wonderful play on words: Merci is of course the French word for "Thank You",
no doubt the phrase that a beggar most wishes to utter, but of course it is
also a pun on the English word "mercy", something else that the beggar no
doubt wishes to receive of us.
Bravo on this wonderful piece,
Andrea! |
