Masterpieces

Here is another page of the site to be visited, that of works on the large scale. From the very beginning and specially since his return from Europe, Joseph Matar has given himself over to works of large dimension, pathetic, patriotic, religious, heroic, and mythological. He began with two shows in the St. Joseph University Hall and elsewhere of works of 2 by 1.5 meters or even larger. From time to time he executed something grandiose, and the project that he has undertaken now and which concerns us here is one of at least 500 square meters. In its final form it will be an assembly of some two hundred canvases, of which sixty are already finished, forming a unity in conception and execution. It will cover the history of all existence, civilization, progress, technology, and discovery, with the great ones of the earth and the geniuses, legends, allegories and mythologies.

All this is to be interpreted in the light of the greatest event that humanity has known, the great act of Golgotha, ‘Man crucifying his Creator’. In a pictorial unity of conception, the atmosphere of each individual work passes imperceptibly into that of the next, so there is no break but instead a continuity in the idea, action, expression and execution.

Each single canvas demands much in the way of studies, cartoons and advanced planning. So there are many difficulties to be overcome, but all give way before the forcible will-power and love deeply embedded in the personality and the heart of the dynamic painter.