2011. április 25., hétfő

(A prison tiger) 17. kép szörny

This is a painting from the Szeged prison which is one of the most strict Hungarian correctional facilities. Prisoners with long sentence serve their time here. The quality of this painting is remarkable. You can see also the smoothness of the brush use. You can notice also the bright colors used by the artist. Mainly light green and yellow in the contrast of the dark of the prison. As most prisoners do everywhere in the world: this picture is probably an altered copy of a photo or another drawing. Some painting contents are like memes in the prisons. The tiger is such a symbol.
The tigers are wild animals and they are rulers of the jungle what the story and the myth on them say. They are invincible, they have sharp teeth and they are lurking behind the bushes. Then they get their victims. They are prepared and they are focused on their aim properly. This is a wish of the prisoners which they could not realize during their life. I saw plenty of tiger pictures in the prison, i.e. a copy of a tiger by Salvador Dalí with the long legged elephant in the background and a nude in the front in an Austrian prison. Or a wall painting in a Hungarian prison which was made by gifted prisoners for prison kings for money.
But there is something strange on this picture. This tiger (or a female leon?) is not angry. Or only its mouth shows aggression. The eye is shiny also a bit sad. The light colors are also ambiguous to the violent symbolization, especially the pink tongue. My impression is that this picture implies also some sexual deprivation. This is interesting however. You can notice this controversy in the prison pictures quite frequently. Masculinity against female attributes like on the hindu paintings on deities. I think this is a conflict between to main motivations: to show the power and the stability and the need for understanding and intimacy. The latter you can not show in a prison setting but this urge finds the way to break out from the prisoners in symbols like this painting.      

A börtönben nagyon gyakori az oroszlán vagy tigris ábrázolás. Ez egy kifejezetten jó minőségű festmény Szegedről. A nagymacskák az erőt és a legyőzhetetlenséget, valamint a vadságot jelképezik.

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