Byzantine Figure

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

The subject of Hugh Mesibov's Byzantine Figure stands in front of a yellow door, evoking Orthodox icons of saints on gilded panels. Further, the scene is fractured into segments of color that glow like a mosaic or stained glass on the black paper. Mesibov indeed drew inspiration from older traditions of art as a way of exploring surrealism, but Dr. Barnes seems to have given the painting its title. He wrote to Mesibov in 1947: "In your exhibit [at the Chinese Gallery in New York] you had a small crayon somewhat in the Byzantine style. I wish you would send me that."

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