'Black Madonna'
1984 - metal: bronze
Intoxicatingly beautiful and possessing a deep and complex psyche, Christopher Cairns’ 'Black Madonna' indeed reigns powerful. Emerging from a group of large figurative bronzes created in the 1980s, 'Black Madonna' (1984) shares similar characteristics to 'Lydia-Mary' (1983), another work by Cairns on view outdoors at Grounds For Sculpture. Like 'Lydia-Mary', 'Black Madonna' possesses a sense of silent, meditative mystery. 'Black Madonna’s' deep psychic presence is reinforced by a strong sculptural aesthetic, as Cairns puts a Cubist twist on traditional classicism, rendering the figure in flat planes with an interplay of convex and concave forms. To even further understand the depth of meaning behind the sculpted solids and voids, one needs only to consider the title given to this work.
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