La Danse Macabre exhibition at JKK FINE ARTS

October and November 2007
Opening Reception, Saturday, October 13th, 5 to 8 pm RSVP

http://www.jkkfinearts.com/exhibitions/dansemacabre/Danse_Macabre.pdf

JKK FINE ARTS, Gallery of Modern Symbolism, is dedicated to cultivation and admiration of the traditions and values of Fine Arts. It promotes contemporary symbolist, expressionist, representational art. Art, which represents the best quality of form and great aesthetical subtlety. JKK Fine Arts takes pride in showing original paintings, drawings, sculptures, and limited edition hand-pulled prints by established international artists: Daniel Barkley, Zdzislaw Beksinski, Luigi Casalino, Joanna Chrobak, Barbara Falender, Chawky Frenn, Michel Henricot, Marek Koczela, Jan Lebenstein, Tomasz Misztal, Aleksandra Nowak, Darek Nowakowski, Egidijus Rudinskas, Krzysztof Skorczewski, Valeriy Skrypka, Michal Swider, Lubomir Tomaszewski, David Vance, Piotr Woroniec, Gustaw Zemla, and Zdenek Mezl.

Dance of Death Totentanz La Danza Macabra

It is a medieval allegory on the universality of death. No matter one’s station in life, the dance of death unite all. It consists of personified death leading a row of dancing figures from all walks of life to the grave, usually with emperor, king, pope, monk, beggar, and child. It reminds people of how fragile their lives are and how vain the glories of earthly life are. The epidemics (such as the Black Death) so frequent and so destructive in the Middle Ages, brought before popular imagination the subject of death and its universal sway. The purpose was to teach the truth that all men must die and should therefore prepare themselves to appear before their Judge. The earliest examples are found in Spain (“La Danza General de la Muerte”, 1360), France (cemetery of the Church of
the Holy Innocents, Paris, 1424), Germany (Bernt Notke, Lubeck), in England (John Lydgate’s “Dance of Death”, XV century), in Italy (“Triumph of Death” in the cemetery in Pisa, circa 1500), and in Poland, Austria, and Switzerland (Konrad Witz, Basel). In many representations underneath the several couples are found a rhymed dialogue between Death and his victims. With the development of engraving the dance of death became very popular subject with many artists. The most famous version of “Dance of Death”
is that of Hans Holbein the younger, a series of 42 woodcuts based on his drawings, issued for the first time in 1538.

Free to public. For more information or additional photos, please contact Jan K. Kapera, Gallery director, at (973) 744 0111 or write an email: jkkfinearts@yahoo.com