Inverted Figure Over Flames

Inverted Figure Over Flames was painted in 1990 during a transitional period between my early abstractions and subsequent representational work. Although most of the paintings of this period are characterized by placing a figure, or figures, into a world of abstract forms, Inverted Figure Over Flames was the first that omits all the abstract forms.

Inverted Figure Over Flames was also my first "minimalist" painting. In them I use minimal compositions instead of highly complex ones while also simplifying other aspects of the picture like the space, colors, and light sources. I think of them as similar to a music composer writing a piece for piano and voice as opposed to one for a large symphony orchestra.

The composition of the painting is, as the title describes, dominated by an inverted figure, fire and smoke. The elements are symmetrically arranged and placed in a dark, amorphous space. A sense of violence pervades the picture. A headless figure, with decaying flesh and open wounds, dangles upside-down from a rope that tightly binds his ankles. He is thrust into the roaring flames that fill the bottom half of the painting while the billowing smoke that arises from the flames fill the upper half. Ominous questions arise. Who started the fire? How did the figure's flesh become so flayed? And who put the figure into this horrible situation?

Inverted Figure Over Flames can also be read symbolically. Fire is a basic element that represents change, transformation, and purification. As such the figure is being simultaneously transformed and purified. The flames also obscure the figure's identity. This allows the figure to be seen as any man. A reference to how we all suffer while living in the world of fire, smoke and violence. Lastly the flowers entangling the rope at the figure's feet represent beauty and the transcendence of the harshness of the world.

Inverted Figure Over Flames is a significant painting in my work in that it was a stylistic harbinger for future minimalist and abstract free works, as well as an early example of my use of the basic elements -fire, water, air, ether, and earth.

- Brian Mains, November 2019