Music, Dance, and the Four Horsemen
"Goya, in 'The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters,' presents the image of a being asleep in confusion and uncertainty. Observing today’s world, I deeply feel this image. Like the character in the painting, I raise my head in the dark night, in silence, take the brush, and create another strange world through painting – a world marked by famine, plague, and war. Images of stupidity, monstrosity, greed, and cruelty abound in it. When the music starts, these figures seem to be summoned by a mysterious force, gathering to dance, as in a mystical ritual..."
Act I: An Image
Context
In my imagination, there are alienated images that traverse time and are omnipresent. These images constantly reappear throughout history, performing the same actions, such as the execution of Plato in ancient Greece, the peasant crusade led by the hermit Pierre, the dance of the plague in Strasbourg in 1518, the speculative tulip bubble in the Netherlands, the affair of the spirits, the charge during World War II, and so on. These events, similar in essence, are still visible in today’s world. Goya recorded them in his paintings from the “House of the Deaf” period. Francis Bacon also showed what he saw.
In my painting, I seek to present the images and states I feel from these figures. The dynamics of these images come from my inner self, while being fueled by the desire for the ideal to become reality, thus creating a “distorting force.” And it is this force that pushes the image to gradually transform: changing color, shape, twisting, breaking, and reorganizing itself.
Creation
The image develops and evolves gradually, with details becoming clearer over time. This image first appeared in my canvases in 2016. It resembled an uncertain specter, a form of naked, solitary, fragile, and hungry life.
L'Opportuniste 2017 Huile sur toile 200 × 110 cm
Torse Rouge 2022 Huile sur toile 95 cm x 140 cm
L'Opportuniste 2017 Huile sur toile 200 × 110 cm
Flow and Alienation of the Image
I created a series of research paintings around the theme of the “dog.” In my view, there is a subtle and deep connection between the animality of the dog and humanity. To reveal this affinity, I evolved the image of the dog, changing its color and shape, in a way that made it visually oscillate between different states.
This exploration ultimately led, in 2022, to the creation of a painting titled "Hunting in Red." In this work, a strange image emerges – it is neither human, nor animal, nor ghostly, but a blend and distortion of all three. The boundaries between man, animal, and ghost slowly blur, the image begins to decompose, to penetrate each other, to transform, and to reorganize. This is how alienation towards an unknown form begins.
Change and Expansion of Colors
At first, I sought a color that could translate my feelings—one that would express both the texture of flesh and carry the images of anxiety, violence, and death. After several attempts, I finally chose red, an intense and direct color, as alive as blood, but also one that carries a sense of unease and latent aggression.
However, as the creation progressed, I gradually felt the indifference and isolation that the color pink evokes. Thus, red gradually gave way to pink, and with the ongoing development of the image, the meaning and emotions it expressed became increasingly rich, while the colors in the image diversified.
Triptych
I like the triptych format, not only because it allows the same subject to be presented from different angles and in various forms within space, but also because it can traverse time, thus forming a coherent expression of the image. This allows for multiple dimensions to unfold: those of space, time, narration, and psychological perception.
Forms and Postures
In 2022, after completing the painting "Gymnastics," I gradually became more interested in the form and posture of the images. Beyond the classic use of posture to create rhythm and narrative in painting, I became fascinated by the emotions that these postures convey and the tension that emanates from these images.
Changing Scene
I want to create a scene for these images, a space where they can manifest their state and evolution. Initially, the space was closed and oppressive, like a constraint, limiting the movements of the images. But as the evolution progressed, the space gradually opened, becoming rich in emotions and symbolic meanings, until it transformed into an expressive field.
This process reminds me of the movie "Joker," where Arthur leaves his small room to move toward more expansive spaces, whether natural or social. It’s not just a physical crossing, but also a psychological escape—a search for a breakthrough between self-repression and the outside world. Similarly, in my paintings, the psychological boundaries of the images are gradually broken, expressiveness intensifies, and the space is no longer just a simple background but becomes a living entity, coexisting and influencing the images.
When both the images and the space undergo a shared alienation, they merge into each other, mutually influencing one another, the boundaries blur, and eventually form a heterogeneous world that is both absurd and real.
Engraving: Frans Hogenberg (1539-1590)
Dance of the Fools (Stultorum Chorea) – circa 1560-70 – Etching and engraving on copper,
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum.
Act II: Dance
The Summer of 1518, in Strasbourg
In the streets, a strange and terrifying spectacle unfolded – hundreds of people seemed to be driven by a mysterious force, plunging into a frenzy of uncontrollable dancing. They twisted and turned endlessly in the square, until exhaustion, with some even collapsing and dying. What was even more alarming was that, over time, more and more people were drawn into this madness, spreading rapidly among the crowd like an epidemic.
This was the famous "Dance Plague of Strasbourg" in history—a burst of collective madness. Oppression and suffering gave rise to a deformed form of release through celebration. However, this event was not isolated. Before this, similar "dance plagues" had occurred at least ten times, each time suddenly, like ghosts, and mysteriously disappearing after causing chaos and death.
Dissolution of the Individual and Extremes of the Group
This seems to be a phenomenon of collective hysteria. In this frantic dance, the sense of individual identity disappears and merges with the whole, while being consumed by an invisible rhythm. Dancing to the beat of the collective, pushed to extremes like a rising tide. The enthusiasm of the group, the process of alienation, loss of control, absorption. The ascent of witches in Goya’s The Witches inspired me to express the bizarre and the absurd, and it also led me to reflect: who? Why did this happen?
Have we really become better?
The Dance Plague of Strasbourg dates back more than five hundred years, but collective madness has never disappeared. Modern society is still permeated by different forms of collective madness – obsession with celebrities, the public opinion parties on the internet, extreme politics and nationalism, frenzied consumption and "shopping frenzies," extreme behaviors during election campaigns, financial bubbles and speculative waves, collective panic...
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Francisco de Goya
The Witches in Flight (1539-1590) | Oil on Canvas | 1798 | Museo del Prado, Spain
Act III: Music (Work in Progress)
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Francisco de Goya
The Great Goat 1821–1823 438 x 140 cm
The Great Goat and the Flautist with the Flowery Coat
Several years ago, at the Prado Museum, I first saw Goya’s The Great Goat, and the absurd and terrifying tension it conveyed deeply marked me. The image exudes a dark, secret, and intangible force that seems not only to belong to the artwork itself but also to transcend history and the depths of human nature—a latent desire that is both the pleasure of masochism and sadism, a secret complicity. Conrad, in Heart of Darkness, reflected this human nature and revealed the primitive violence and hidden desires behind civilization. In my paintings, this force spreads constantly, gradually eroding the images, twisting them, transforming them, until they disintegrate and disappear.
At the same time, I think of the Flautist with the Flowery Coat from Hamelin—this figure who, with his magical flute, lures the children out of the city to disappear into the unknown black forest. The music of the flute, like a magical call, makes the children forget everything else as they follow him blindly. And isn't this scene, after all, another version of Goya’s The Great Goat in his painting?
Sacrifice
While Matisse’s works, La Danse and La Musique, show the freedom of the body and the joy of the spirit, the world I depict interprets the relationship between music and dance from another angle: that of loss and madness.
In this incessant celebration, people are pushed to the extreme, plunged into total immersion, unable to break free. They lose themselves, sinking into their own world, until they drown. At a certain level, the images of dance voluntarily follow the Flautist with the Flowery Coat. This game knows neither winner nor innocent, but it represents an endless, primal sacrifice. And what is it that they plunge into, this insatiable pleasure—what is it? The sounds resonate, the dance continues, and the images on the canvas sacrifice themselves, eventually becoming part of the music.
Act IV: The Four Horsemen (Work in Progress)
The first time I heard the story of the Four Horsemen, I thought it was just a fictional legend, existing only in religious texts and literary works. However, over time, I began to realize that they never seemed to have left. Through the ages, they can still be glimpsed somewhere. Artists seemed to have seen them— in antiquity with Holbein and Dürer, and in the modern era with artists like Baselitz, who all painted what they saw. The appearance of the Four Horsemen may no longer resemble Dürer’s engravings from over 500 years ago, but they are still present today, like a fatality, walking alongside the world, never disappearing.
Dance, Music, and the Four Horsemen
In this series of works, music and dance, akin to ancient rituals of sacrifice, invoke a mysterious force. In my view, what ultimately answers this call are the "Four Horsemen." For they do not come from the outside world, but are deeply embedded in the soul of each individual.
All of humanity's technological inventions are, ultimately, attempts to fight against death. At a time when technology is advancing at a breathtaking pace, where we master powerful tools such as robots, artificial intelligence, genetic editing, and quantum computing, it seems that we catch a glimpse of the hope of freeing ourselves from the fatality of the "Four Horsemen." However, will these technologies really lead us to paradise, or have they promised us paradise only to pull us into hell? At this point, it becomes futile to judge what is right or wrong. What truly matters is what we believe in, the choices we make, and the price we pay.
Dürer
The four horsemen
1498
Engraving on copper..
Painting and Presentation
In this theme, I have firmly continued to evolve my painting. Painting is a process where emotions and imagination are linked to the act of creation, not a mere reproduction of pre-existing or intentional images. Throughout this process, the unconscious and the intervention of chance allow the images to emerge and grow, twisting, transforming, alienating, and reconstructing themselves, until they finally freeze in a moment that is appropriate—both appearing and disappearing. In this dynamic balance, sensations are captured, and the images exist fleetingly. I try to make the process itself part of the work, allowing chance in the act of painting to guide the transformation of the images, and for the work to come alive through its generation and constant changes, thus revealing its unique vitality.