Artists

Augusta Atla

Press release

Painting – and the act of painting – is not merely the gesture of the hands applying pigment. Painting is not solely the frame and the materials that physically constitute the work. Indeed, painting exists even before it takes form physically. Even if painting did not have a concept in itself before the Renaissance, the act of painting and creating images is prehistoric. However, there is one myth in the history of painting that I can never forget.

A Greek myth, written down by Pliny the Elder (23/24 – 79 BCE), recounts that when men went to war or on a long travel in antiquity, women traced the contours of their lovers' shadow upon the wall – an act borne of longing, a means of preserving their beloved’s presence as a memory. These women did not know if they would ever see their husbands or lovers again. Thus, the idea – or the myth – emerged that painting was invented by women as a means of enduring grief, longing, separation, uncertainty, war, and unfulfilled love.