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Back To Beauty – The painter ZARUM leading the way to higher standards

by Ruth Martina

By Ruth Martina
ruth.martina@hotmail.com

In this age of multimedia and endless technical gadgets designed to create any imaginable effect and arouse any desired emotion, it is fabulous and truly refreshing to find an artist who is able to ignite passion, to inspire sensuality and stimulate self awareness by the simple means of paint on canvas. In an abundance of clear, clean colors he surprises us with unplugged truths of our human emotions and relationships and touches us with the surprisingly simple mysteries that they harbor. We find ourselves reflected, our secrets revealed and exposed, yet dealt with in a remarkably tender and harmonic fashion.

A celebration of color and passion is what I find the art of ZARUM to be. Walking through his exhibition one cannot help but be captured by the joy of being alive that radiates from his paintings and unfurls all around the room. Curiosity stricken, one is then carried by a sense of craving from one painting to the next.

It is not difficult for the educated eye to identify which artists have influenced ZARUM in his work, yet his individuality and personal style definitely dominate the final image and make it recognizable as ‘ZARUM’ art. The most original and extraordinary set of paintings I want to point out is what he calls the “Faces Series”. Flakes of color seem to glow as if lit up or projected onto a dark background as they are grouped to form facial shapes and features expressing emotions, characters, situations and beliefs. The effect is created by a unique technique ZARUM has developed specially for this series. This body of work was created in a time when ZARUM occupied a very large and beautiful 14 room 17th century estate in the Costa Blanca region of Spain practically in complete solitude for a period of almost 2 year. Here ZARUM was able to surrender himself entirely to his passion for art and concentrate exclusively on painting. He would use and utilize the unconventional setting to create some of his so far most impressive pieces.

This is not where it all started, though. Before falling in love with and moving to Spain where his creativity flourished and got some exposure in several exhibitions. ZARUM lived, worked and exhibited in Amsterdam, a city that has been the stepping stone for so many artists during so many changing eras.

ZARUM, however is quite different. A brief look at his own and his family history show a multitude of cultural influences and ethnic roots from Oriental through Mediterranean to European. His childhood and most of his earlier adult life ZARUM was spent in Canada. Later, he lived in the US and Europe and during his extensive travels visited various countries around the globe, absorbing the character and feel of each region. Painting has always been an important part of his life, but only in the last decade has it taken a central role and grown into his main focus.

One of the reasons for this is the fact that ZARUM has been blessed with a variety of talents and an admirable ambition to turn them into something real. In different periods of his life he chose to invest his energies in different endeavors, usually with a great deal of success. The most mentionable of his other talents is music. With a voice that makes many a popular rock star sound amateur next to his, he recorded several albums. ZARUM composes, writes, arranges and plays himself. It is therefore not surprising to find this love and passion for music expressed in his paintings as well.

Love and passion are basic ingredients that ZARUM’s art is made of, either as an immediate motif or as the primary motivation. A protruding and reoccurring theme in most of ZARUM’s paintings are the human eyes which transmit the notion of attempting to communicate with the observer. Whether wide-open, truth-seeking and hopeful or closed and tranquilly looking inward they are ever present as representatives of the human soul. And maybe this is what makes his art so powerful and authentic. It comes directly from inside his own soul reaching out to those who are open to let themselves be touched by the courage of his honesty and strength to believe in beauty.

With most contemporary artists moving away from the masterly fine art of painting to experiment with intricate methods of expression, resulting in plump and often even brutal displays of stuff or complicated constructions with little significance, art has become a competition of outrageous material usage and weird exhibiting techniques. Painters who stick to their exquisite skill are often discouraged and retreat to dumb illustrations of dull realities. Not so ZARUM. This painter brings back the joy of pure painting and pushes it to new peaks. His work restores the honor of this wonderful and most important of all art forms. ZARUM takes his art as serious as it should be taken and we need to do the same.

I don’t believe the international art-world has seen anything so fresh and novel in a long time. Here is a painter to get excited about and we should keep our eyes on him and anything that evolves off his brush strokes, because this is only the beginning. The future needs an inspired painter like ZARUM with his bold, energetic style. His remarkable talent and drive combined with discipline and a charismatic personality will allow him to take a leading role in the art-scene. He has what it takes to make a real difference and have a lasting impact on art.

Personally, I am eager to see what comes next and the curiosity and sense of craving that accompanied me through ZARUM’s exhibition have only grown stronger. I highly recommend to any art-lover to take some time and check out what ZARUM has to offer so far and keep a close watch on developments, for in the not so far future you will hear his name everywhere.
ZARUM’s works and more reviews can be viewed at www.zarum.net
©2009 Ruth Martina
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Ruth Martina is a German born freelance writer
with a focus on the international art scene.

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