"Dostoevsky in the Prison Ship ", acrylic on canvas, Stamatis Skliris, 2021
Attempting to trace Dostoevsky’s portrait visually, I started studying the shocking wound which I cut off the painting of the great established Greek painter Nektarios Mamais. It is not a human wound but the wound of a fig opuntia or prickly pear. Mamais painted one such wound in the plant’s body, and it referred me to the person of Dostoevsky, which revealed the spiritual injury of the writer when he was sentenced to prison. My painting “Dostoevsky in the Prison Ship” is about the wound. Although there is no wound visible to the eye on the artwork, it exists inherent in the heart of the painted long sentenced Dostoevsky. The wound and the attitude towards the nothingness hinting at the wound gave birth to the epic works of Dostoevsky. - Stamatis Skliris