Carlo Maria Mariani

My favorite artist of the postmodern era is Carlo Maria Mariani. His work truly seems like "art" to me, while retaining the avant garde-ness that postmodern artists strive to achieve. While Rauschenburg and Rothko have very interesting pieces, their art seems to take very little actual skill whereas Mariani has the physical artistic skill of a master while simultaneously achieving the though provoking aspects of post modernism. For instance, his "Eclipse 5" (http://www.carlomariamariani.com/paintings/pnt16.html) takes a lot skill to paint, but it is still thought provoking. The background is modern, but the building the women jumps from is very classic. Because of the juxtaposition of classic architecture and modern architecture of the cityscape, the viewer finds it hard to place the woman who is falling into a time period. She is naked, and portrayed in a classic manner, yet she is jumping from a building which makes for a very un-classic painting since most classic paintings tend to portray either happiness, greek gods, or a particularly well known story. The women's clothing also produces and interesting juxtaposition as her toga hints and classical art, but since when did greeks or romans wear headbands?