"THE HARP LISTENER. SAUL AND DAVID"
1992, oil on canvas, golden foil, 105x125 cm.

THE HARP LISTENER. SAUL AND DAVID_author Boris Laurentiev

I’ve been always impressed by the skill of grand artists - such as Rem-brandt, Tintoretto, El Greco - to create a powerful artwork basing just on few lines from the Bible. I analysed composition, sense of color and inner expression of paintings but I did not forget that the base was a short phrase - "And thus the waters of the Black Sea opened"... Or "And Judith said unto them, Command the gates of the city to be opened unto me, that I may go forth to accomplish the things whereof ye have spoken with me". This super task (to make a simple thing be powerful) stuck in my head in youth until I finally implemented it, intuitively, not even yet formulated.

It was 1992, the agony of leviathan, the Soviet Union: empty shops, gloomy agressive rallies on the squares, inflation, ration stamps, million prices for nothings and of course absolutely no job in architecture and design. I used to stay at home for several days, sitting in my parents’ flat full of antique furniture and reading books in the big library. I read Tolstoy, Zola, Dostoyevsky, Kerouac again. I ate roasted bread, there was a box of condensed milk and a lot of soviet champagne (it has been quickly sold out right from a truck on the street). It was a wonderful life. Intellectuals in mass emigrated from Russia and perhaps I also had to do that. I read the Bible, the story of David and Saul. After the phrase "And Saul cast the javelin" I closed the old shabby book. "Here are the paints, here is the chance - How long will you wait? - Work. No matter where you are..."

That is how my probably the best painting - "The harp listener" - ap-peared, and after - "Bird Catchers", "Judith Morning", "Death of a Nomad" and dozens of abstract fraphic papers.

"And the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music... And the next day: David played harp. And Saul cast the javelin..." (1 Samuel)