Jkuhligerfineart

J. Kuhliger's Fine Art Gallery

The Mayan Cosmogony Oil on Canvas Series
The Mayan Habitat Pastel Rendering Series

"El Grito Cósmico"/"The Cosmic Howl" (1990)

The Mayan Culture understood the Earth as an entity that hides inside its core the secret of its own origin… the Energy, the dynamic element of the Cosmos. In this scene, Kuhliger represents the dynamics of the volcanic phenomenon, as the Mayas interpreted it, a snake formed by the pyre-plastic flow that raises, with a trembling howl. In the center of the volcano’s draft, a glowing mythical entity that represents the Energy, shows up from the inside of the Earth.

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The Mayan Cosmogony
Series of Oil Paintings on Canvas

The Mayan Habitat
Series of Dry Media Renderings

Oddities Studio - P.O. Box 8954 Emeryville, Ca. 94662 - (510) 677-6182 - oddscar@hotmail.com

"El Canto Celeste del Universo" / "The Celestial Song of the Universe" (1989)

In the Mayan Mythology, the Cosmos is a Turtle with a dual ability, it can either expand or retract back into itself, while the celestial bi-cephalic snake that represents the sky crawls out of the Turtle’s mouth engulfing two entities that represent the Sun and the Moon, which show their faces looking on opposite directions and surrounded by the body and the two heads of the snake; everything there are celestial events that happen under the principles of the Universal Turtle's shell.

Technique: “Classic layered a la Prima Brush on Canvas”
Medium: Windsor & Newton Oil Colors (AA and A Permanence)
Base: White Acrylic-Casein Emulsion
Imprimatur: White Iridescent Polyvinyl-Acrylate Gesso
Substrate: Neutral pH Heavy Strand Cotton-Linen (70/30%) Crosshatch Canvas
Format: Vertical; Size: 120 cms. X 100 cms.

"El Igneo, Senor del Tiempo" / "The Igneous Entity, Lord of Time" (1990)

The Mayan metaphysical abstraction of the Universe, assumed it to be a concert of several entities of different natures, all of them jointly interacting in the integration of the Cosmos. In this scene, Kuhliger has used the Mayan icons that represented the fundamental Cosmic Entities of the Energy, the Action, the infinite dwelling Space and the transcending flow of Time to render a scene that integrates and conveys the mythical abstraction of the Universe.

"El Portador del Cosmos"/"The Cosmic Carrier" (1991)

The Cosmic Order, the Harmony and the Continuity of Reality are represented by Entities emerging in a staggered sequence from the inside of a Sea Shell representing the eternally self-generated entity who is the ontological axiomatic beginning of everything, including himself. From the inside of the celestial snake’s mouth emerges a Pavaktun or Sky Porter carrying in his hands the dually headed beam of the universe’s light wrapped by the darkness of the night which is represented by his black hands. The Band representing the Space surrounds the whole scene, while three Pavaktuns that characterize the cosmic bodies in the sky dance around, suspended in the space.

These four masterpieces are part of the series "The Mayan Cosmogony", which is one of the finest artistic achievements of J. Kuhliger; he started this series as an Art Project derived from the research on the ancient Mayan Culture initiated during his Masters Degree in Fine Arts. In this Series Kuhliger conceived and integrated coherent scenes that faithfully connote and express the complex conceptualizations of the mystical Mayan mythology; skillfully capturing the mythical legends in realistic scenes that portray the lively interactions of monolithic entities that characterize the Mayan abstractions of the structure and the elements of the Mayan Universe.

With great plastic ability, a gifted creative imagination and neatly eloquent aesthetic design plans, Kuhliger brought to life in his splendid and very suggestive scenes the symbolism of the complex iconographic codes that narrate the myths of the Mayan Cosmogony; giving substance and dwelling space to the mythological characters that he used as plastic morphemes to depict the relationships that exist among the entities that represent the natural resources, the structure and the principles of the cosmic context. In his scenes the symbolism is handled as a concert of codes plainly expressed with an explicit graphic syntax, conveying a plethora of evocative metaphysical concepts about the Mayan Cosmogony. J. Kuhliger’s art production has turned out to be both, fine art and illustrative documents; as every aspect of his work is the concurrence of a strong theoretical background and great artistic talent.

Jorge Kuhliger worked hard to capture the spirit of the ancient Mayan world in these views that faithfully recreate the ancient mood of the Mayan Habitat, in his approach J. Kuhliger covered every aspect of the context, meticulously depicting all the details of the environment where the Mayan Culture flourish. The composition plans, the rendering techniques and the properties of the media employed were masterly combined in all the scenes of this superb rendering series. The dry media used in these renderings varied widely, Le Franc Lithographic Black Charcoal Wax-Pencil; Windsor & Newton Oil Pastels; Sanguine and Sepia Conté Crete-Pencils and Carand’Ache Crete-Sticks; the substrates are half-sheets of Hot Pressed Canson Mi-Teintes; the great artistic and technical qualities of these masterworks, clearly reveal the exceptional talent of J. Kuhliger.

In these four beautiful Oil Paintings J. Kuhliger used the “Layered Ala Prima Oil Brush Technique" on large format Canvases of 120 cm. X 100 cm. (4' X 3 1/4'); applying W&N Oil Colors (AA and A Permanence) on a Base of White Acrylic-Casein Emulsion. The Substrates are Neutral pH Heavy Strand Cotton-Linen (70/30%) Crosshatch Canvas that was prepared with a deep imprimatur of White Iridescent Polyvinyl-Acrylate Gesso. Kuhliger employed only top quality art materials, his artworks were meant to last.