WHITE SILK MUSIC

1 Journey (1980), H. Shlien Gallery, Boston, 1981 | 2 Hands (1980) | 3 Window (1980) | 4-7 The Garden Of Effi Briest, New York, 1982 | 8-10 The Garden Of Effi Briest, ZPAP Gallery, Warsaw, 1994

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is linked in my memory with red, Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane with white. A Chinese ghost story, silk shoes & silk curtains are some of the important elements in Effi Briest. When many years later in 1980, I saw white Chinese silk in one of the very few stocked shops in Nanking, I bought all of it. Some of the silk was used for the first large white-on-white installation, Journey, shown at the Helen Shlien Gallery in December 1981 in Boston. The Garden of Effi Briest was made in the fall of 1982 in New York. The installation was the size of my bedroom-cum-studio and the small Biblical Garden of Saint John the Divine Church across the street from my apartment. The triptych Red Black White was painted in acrylic on white silk after returning from China in 1980.

1-4 Red Black White (1980)