Werner Horvath: "Clash of Civilizations I - George W. Bush". Oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm, 2001.
"The lines are notably sharp and
definitive. The hectic way in which the colours have been arranged
almost mirrors the chaos caused by the horrific events of the day.
There is a very expansive palette used within Horvath's paintings,
almost Fauvist colourings.
...
Definitely done in a surreal style, Horvath likes to play with
metaphors of our 'reality' and turn them into symbolic messages. By
distorting the image of Bush, Horvath has almost pushed the focus on to
the events of the day rather than the political people standing behind
it. He has pushed the
boundaries of realism and portrayed, in his own words and images,
events that have affected us all and that we can all relate to."
(Steffanie McKenna: "How current events influence artists and their work", for BTEC in Art and Design, Telford College, Edinburgh 2005).
"Austrian Painter Werner Horvath's 2001 'Clash of Civilisations' takes into consideration a much wider view of the events leading up to the 9-11 actions. Using 'New Constructivism' as a visual explanatory vehicle, Horvath depicts the current US President George W. Bush in vivid, swirling colour as a tight lipped defender of an 'Old Order' industrial society while ongoing profound and chaotic changes in both the psychic and physical realms of global society are portrayed realistically using small 9-11 recreations seen at the bottom of Horvath's 'Clash of Civilisations".
"Clash of Civilisations - George W. Bush" was the winning image of the art contest of the ABS-gallery in Denver in 2002. It was published twice in "Zeek - A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture", New York, in articles by Jay Michaelson ("The Spiritual Foundations of Bushism" and "Destructing Zell Miller (and Reconstructing Kerry") in 2004.