Morality Play

Chris Cosnowski

The second of my arches paintings features a severed torso of a soldier strung up. He is flanked by a porcelain female aristocrat figure and realistic chess knight figure which are both half in shadow. This arrangement evokes romantic ideas of soldiering – the nobility of the knight or the knight in shining armor and the damsel in distress or perhaps the girl back home. The fact that these figures are half in shadow underline the notion that we don’t think overtly about these things. I like the way the plastic joint of the soldier really works as entrails.

The Romance of Warfare, 2022
oil on panel
10 x 15 in   25.4 x 38.1 cm