Mt. Meru in the Kali-Yuga

1993

born Fox Valley, Oregon, 1910; died Loleta, California, 2001

Mt. Meru in the Kali-Yuga has in it an ominous polluted sky, a stealth bomber flying through the composition, a periscope from a nuclear submarine, a blotted-out sun. Mt. Meru, the mythological abode of the gods that personify wisdom rises up in the center of the painting.

In the ocean of consciousness there are certain forms that are more eternal, more enduring than others. The Kali-Yuga, the iron age, the age of dissention as the Hindu would call it, is rife with ideologies and instruments that tend to divide people and places and polarize the pair of opposites in confusing ways. Even Mt. Meru is eroding and wisdom is clouded and accessibility is not so easy.

Acrylic on paper

Overall: 38 × 26in. (96.5 × 66cm)

Frame: 31 1/8 × 45in. (79.1 × 114.3cm)

Gift of Robert Yarber

94.156

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Morris Graves and Seattle", November 1, 2001 - October 20, 2002

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