The End of Time

ROB MATTHEWS Painting | 2015   This body of work is made to spend time considering events and people that get lost in the shuffle of the ever-changing news cycle.  Themes of upheaval, power, displacement and the unspoken message of “home” anchor the work.  In The End of Time, the figures stand on a coastline with reddened water behind them.  The composition is borrowed from Picasso’s Pipes of Pan. Picasso’s piece overlooks a calm Mediterranean view. Rather than use this peaceful view of the sea that has, for generations, brought people to it for its tranquility, I choose to depict the Mediterranean for the millennia-old bloodbath that it is. In the bottom left of the piece is a head. It is that of Matthew Ayariga, the lone Ghanan decapitated alongside 20 Coptic Christians from Egypt on a Libyan coast.   Size 69 × 81 inches - Unframed   Materials Gouache and sumi ink on paper on canvas over wood panel   Authenticity Hand signed by the artist