The 2014/2015 Knohl Collection Award for Art Inspired by History or Literature
The Knohl Collection and the International ARC Salon are pleased to announce the winners of The 2014/2015 Knohl Collection Award for History or Literature Inspired Art. With approximately 2,500 entries by over 1,050 extremely talented artists, the judges had a very difficult time choosing the winners. Congratulations to all the winners, finalists, and entrants.
This year the $5,000 prize for The Knohl Collection Award for History or Literature Inspired Art was equally divided between two works: Know Not Thy Pending Fate by Christina Grace Mastrangelo and The Ship of Fools by Carl Dobsky.
When asked about how history and/or literature inspired their work, both artists had very insightful answers.
Christina Grace Mastrangelo replied: “It evolved after years of studying humanist literature, and the personal effect of love and loss through death and heartbreak. When I first moved to Florence in 2006, I was struck by the intensity of the history of the city. It lead me to study the great minds of Florentine history: I read about Michelangelo’s struggles with his work and with God; I read about Leonardo’s ideas and inventions and discovered the great minds of Boccaccio, Machiavelli, and Dante. After living there only a short time, the idea for this work came to me in a dream. The scene was a group of figures stretching up into the sky, away from darkness and pain, and up into the light, towards serenity, harmony and connectedness. It was only later that I made the connection to Dante’s Divine Comedy, as the vision changed to include the unknown realm of the afterlife and an internal search for an answer.”
Carl Dobsky, artist of The Ship of Fools, said: “The theme for the work has been around for a long time with some crediting it as beginning in the time of Plato. It kind of comes into it’s own in the 15th century with a book by Sebastian Brant titled The Ship of Fools which became the inspiration for works by the likes of Hieronymous Bosch and others. It usually depicts a boat without a pilot filled with deranged people who are oblivious to their situation. In some cases, it has been used as social commentary. I wanted to take these elements but give the theme a personal interpretation.”
CONGRATULATIONS Christina Grace Mastrangelo and Carl Dobsky!!!