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Encaustic painting
is one of the oldest techniques within the art of painting,
in which colour pigment is mixed with melted bees`wax and
resin by means of a hot iron spatula.
The method was used as early as 500 BC. The Etruscans employed
it when painting the outside as well as the interior of their
houses. Even statues and ships were adorned in this way. Pliny
the Elder (24-79 AD) reveals how important it was for the
Egyptians and ancient Athens and Rome.
The Louvre Museum in Paris has a collection of encaustic paintings
excavated in Egypt and Pompeii, and in the Saint Sulpice Church
in Paris there is an altar piece painted by Eugene Delacroix
where he has employed the same technique. Concerning durability
wax is by far superior to oil. Wax does not turn yellow because
each colour pigment is encapsulated in wax and hence unaffected
by air and light.
Georg Lederer describes most of his art as essence-realism,
as it comes to expression in still life pictures of fruit
and vegetables which he started on in Normandy, where he settled
after his studies in Paris. For a time he had his studio in
an old stone church
dating back to the 13 th century. In these surroundings he
found a special atmosphere in the life and landscape which
inspired and made him see that "all forms of life have
a character, an intrinsic power - even a vegetable".
It has been said that his paintings
are imbued with a kind of sacral atmosphere showing reverence
and respect for the Creation.
(Excerpt from press release, Oslo, 11 May, 1993).
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