Christian Brechneffs new pastels, drawn in various locations around the world, indicate a remarkably direct, close relationship-rather startling intimacy and engagement-with nature, even more intense, I venture to say, than that of the Impressionists. These 19th Century artists retained a certain "scientific" distance and detachment-they wanted to observe the details of atmosphere and light, not immerse themselves in the totality of nature-that Brechneff altogether abandons, without abandoning any of his artistic ability and awareness, indeed, the acumen of his hand. He is a kind of Jacob wrestling with the angel of light, with his art receiving its blessing. His pastels are mystical epiphanies that nonetheless remain adroitly focused-a romantic art that carefully details the titanic forces at work in sacred nature.
There is in fact a strong sense of the limitless-the rupture of the unbounded-in Brechneffs oceanic pastels. One can feel it in every detail, as it loses its boundaries in the process of fusing-in a kind of magmatic fury-with other details, to form an amorphous infinity. Brechneff pictures what has been called "nonindifferent nature"-a nature into which we project our own emotions-but it is also a nature that reminds us of our irrelevance in the larger scheme of the cosmos.
There is in fact a strong sense of the limitless-the rupture of the unbounded-in Brechneffs oceanic pastels. One can feel it in every detail, as it loses its boundaries in the process of fusing-in a kind of magmatic fury-with other details, to form an amorphous infinity. Brechneff pictures what has been called "nonindifferent nature"-a nature into which we project our own emotions-but it is also a nature that reminds us of our irrelevance in the larger scheme of the cosmos.