Maria Szakats
                                BLUE PARROT, 2024
                            
                                    Mohair embroidered on cotton toile
26 x 19.5 cm
10 1/4 x 7 5/8 in.
10 1/4 x 7 5/8 in.
Unique
                                    
                                            Courtesy of the artist and Brooke Benington
                                        
                                Further images
                                   In BLUE PARROT Szakats draws inspiration from a fragment of Jan Brueghel the Elder's A Fantastic Cave with Odysseus and Calypso (1616). The image has a central focus on the...
                        
                    
                                                    In BLUE PARROT Szakats draws inspiration from a fragment of Jan Brueghel the Elder's A Fantastic Cave with Odysseus and Calypso (1616). The image has a central focus on the blue parrot, placed against a cropped view that evokes a cavernous frame, creating a sense enclosure and shelter. This composition references Renaissance paintings where caves or hallways guide the viewer’s gaze. The protective cave-like framing creates an intimate yet distant connection with the world, echoing Le Monde, the 21st Tarot de Marseille card, which symbolises completion, protection, and the synthesis of experience. Szakats’s piece captures the tension between seeking refuge and closeness while also freedom and independence, sparking a reflection on the ambiguity of the dynamics within intimate relationships.
                    
                    
                 
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                            