Review on Grigori Grabovoi's pictures

 

 

According to the first words of the Book of Genesis "God created the sky and the earth" (Genesis 1:1), and this division into two parts of all created things has always been acknowledged as the main one. We can see the same in the confession of faith, when calling God "the Creator of all that is visible and invisible". But these two worlds - visible and invisible - adjoin. However, the difference between them is so great that we cannot but raise the question of the boundary between them. For that boundary both separates them and brings them together. Like in other metaphysical issues, it is best to consider man as a starting point. For in ourselves life in the visible is alternated with life in the invisible, and, thus, there are moments, although rare, and sometimes lasting only a split second, when both worlds make contact; and then we witness the effect of it…

 

A dream is the first and basic stage of life in the invisible. Even being the lowest stage, as it often is, the dream nonetheless gives the forefeeling that there is something beyond what we tend to believe to be one and the only life.
A dream is an indication of transition from one reality into another and is a symbol.
In the majority of cases all significant happenings come via dreams, or in some subtle dream, or else in sudden breaks of consciousness through external reality.
And then the Truth is revealed to us…
What has been said of the dream is true for any transition into another reality. A good example of that is the artistic expression, for art is a dream manifested into a denser physical reality. In this case, the Artist as a mystic is able to cross the boundaries and be both in this and another reality at the same time.

The invisible world manifests itself in the physical world through things, objects i.e. matter, - and this is all a symbol. For there is nothing external that would not be the manifestation of the internal. The Artist, who is a spiritual seer, who abides in eternity, whose consciousness is free from the limitations of time , is capable of translating his/her experience through real canvas and paints. Thus concrete metaphysics of the world is expressed. The light is the light itself as a mystical cause of the things existent, and not the colour.

The light - the most invisible of all - is energy. And it is the most powerful force, the most effectual one. But the invisibility of God’s power infinitely exceeds the invisibility of magnetic power! Although any power is God-inspired, but the power can be God’s in literal sense.

 

But when the depicted symbol serves its purpose in an artist's hands and is the result of the instrument of spirit, it is then inseparable from the higher reality manifested by it. Then the picture goes beyond itself, and its ontological characteristic is not to represent, but to be what it symbolizes.
This is the understanding of art as an instrument of supersensible cognition. And such art can be created only by a person, who has the ability to see the foretype, the true spiritual essence of things existent. The artist, capable of creating such art, eliminates the obstacle that makes this world inaccessible for us. He/she helps remove the scales covering our spiritual eyes.

And now with the artist's help we can see not just his/her artistry, but full real existence of the images.

 

And having a certain focus of attention, which is a necessary condition for developing a spiritual vision, we can feel an acute and piercing the soul sense of reality of the spiritual world, the sense which suddenly strikes almost everyone who sees this sacred work for the first time.

It is perceived as surpassing all its surroundings, being both in another space of its own and in eternity.

 

The passions and the bustle of the world subside; the work is perceived as being above- this reality, qualitatively surpassing the world, and from its whereabouts acting here, among us. And healing of the soul through the communion with the spiritual world through this picture is first of all the manifestation of miracle-working Divine help. And the deeper we comprehend this communion, the more it is perceived as something known for a long time and long - awaited by man’s consciousness.

And indeed, it is glad news from the dear depths of being, a forgotten, but secretly cherished recollection of the spiritual native land.

 And indeed, having received this revelation, we perceive it not from without, but from within.
          Until now such miracle has only been observed in icon painting. Of all the philosophical evidence of the existence of God the most convincing are the words "There is Rublev's Trinity, therefore, there is God ". And another emotional example is Kazan Mother of God in Kazan Cathedral in Moscow. "It was She Herself, not just Her image, but She Herself beheld by means of the icon painting art.

 

I can see the Mother of God as if I saw Her through the window, the Mother of God Herself, and I pray to Her own self, face to face, but in no way to the image of Her..."  The icon painter showed Her to me, indeed; though, he didn't create: he opened the veil, and She, who is behind the veil, appears as the objective reality... And it is not mere coincidence that the saints mostly came down from the icons when manifesting themselves to worshippers.
Grigori Grabovoi's pictures erase the boundary between the two worlds, help open spiritual clairvoyance, and feel the ontological reality of another world; help come closer to the deepest mysteries of faith and creation, to understanding the Divine order of things (The Teachings on Salvation), and, therefore, infinite goodness, of which we have become oblationaries in Jesus Christ.

 

Viola Josan

Grigori Grabovoi picture gallery