This photo of Ketu—K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth, located in the Karakoram range of the Himalayas on the border of Parkistan and China—cannot quite convey the incredible size, the grandeur of this great being. But as a portrait it is a likeness. And I like it.
David Maxim likes such images too and for years he has been quietly working from such magazine and internet photos to create mountain paintings. On the record as an assemblage artist, Maxim has accumulated a horde of paintings and drawings which he shows for the first time at David Cummingham Projects, SF. Walking in on the show was a revelation.
This pic does not quite convey the work, a portrait of another mountain in the Karakoram range, Sisbun Barakk. Luminescent and exact, most of the paintings are about 40 to 48 inches across; the largest loomed at seven and half feet tall. Many are framed in heavy, black frames. The combination of the scale, the heightened focus, the tight composition, and heavy black frame, compresses and intensifies the experience of the subject. Magnification magnifies the magnificence.
Framing is important to Maxim. The grid, a containing structure, shows up in many of his other works as does binding—bondage contains, compresses, sets limits. The assemblage on the left, from 1988, is called, Limits of the World. The bound figure is more recent, 2006.
His mountain drawings are obstructed by a grid of lines, a net capturing the image, framing it. Look at this figure, called View of the World.
The frame—whether compositional, conceptual, or literal—holds the gaze. The gaze is what it is all about. Darshan: the blessing of the gaze. To look upon the holy person, icon, place, conveys grace upon the viewer. The essence is held in the gaze; the essence is transferred via the gaze. The mountain essence here is mighty and massive, slendid, sublime.
The show at David Cummingham Projects has been extended 'til the end of the month. It is worthy of repeated visits.
