Music without Sound (After Edouard Manet)

The lyrical yet confident brushwork of Jonathan Ching is juxtaposed against his characteristic use of copper collage elements. Music Without Sound (After ?douard Manet) is a homage to The Fifer by French painter ?douard Manet. The original work, now in Mus?e d'Orsay, Paris, is itself in turn Manet's homage to Spanish court artist Diego Vel?zquez. Ching places himself as most recent in the line of artists who have been inspired by, borrowed from, and paid tribute to each other's work. In Ching's atmospheric painting, Manet's painting has been laid sideways on a floor as though de-commissioned from its rightful place on the wall. In front, a stack of old mattresses are placed, representing Ching's interest in interrogating abandoned spaces.The overall feeling is of moving house; being in shifting transition. The copper squirrels nibbling around the base imbue the painting with a feeling of lingering nostalgia and graceful transience.