The Cave of Lascaux discovered Sep12th 1940

Today, on the 12th of September in 1940 the caves of Lascaux in the south of France near to Montignac were discovered by Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel and Simon Coencas, 4 young people who just roamed the area for some dicoveries as young people do in general. In 1948 the caves were opened for the public to see paintings dated more than 17000 years before our time. Unfortunately the caves had to be closed again in 1963 because the expelled CO2 of the many visitors damaged the paintings.

An airconditioning system had to be installed to control the environment, the paintings were restored. 1983 a reproduction of the cave and its paintings was created for the public.

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“Lascaux”

40″ x 13″

painted on silk

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Another cave in the south of France is even more spectacular – age up to 31500 years old: the cave Chauvet in Vallon Pont d’Arc. another cave – Altamira in Spain – contains some of the most beautiful cave paintings in the world.

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All of these cave paintings reveal an artistic quality and a skill for abstraction as well as realistic presentation that is amazing as the humans of that period of time have been considered to be very “simple”. Another example of the arrogance of our modern times!

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I have always been fascinated by the elegance, the colours and the detail of the form of these paintings and have tried on my own to creep inside the ancient artist brains in order to paint my own works – but mine are only very humble “reproductions” of those ancient masterpieces….

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This painting in fact is a collage. The detailed drawings have been transferred as Photo transfers to the silk and direct painting have been combined here. Additionally the painting was machine stitched in order to create a relief.

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