Virtuartnet

Group one: In honour of the Air Force

On the right side of the image the prophet Ezekiel, shrouded in darkness, is colored in muted tones. With an ecstatic movement he covers his eyes to avoid looking at the wondrous vision that appears before him: the image of God surrounded by four winged figures - an eagle, an ox, a lion and a man - and in the center, the rainbow. God appears in the picture as a sheet of flame without body or face, and the creatures around him are like mechanical robots from outer space, with strange hypnotic colors. Undoubtably I was influenced here by the imaginative interpretation of the writer Erich von Däniken, who took the Ezekiel's vision as proof of the landing of a spacecraft in ancient times. Without necessarily accepting his theory I find it very picturesque and appripriate for an image designed for the Air Force Academy.
Anyone who is familiar with Raphael's painting of the Vision of Ezekiel can find traces of this too in this print. This is not an unconscious influence of the great Renaissance artist, but the result of thought and planning. Just as Raphael was influenced in his painting by a relief of the same pattern that had been done some 400 years earlier in the south of France (Moissac), I followed his pattern, painted 400 years ago, but I designed it with a modern character to express our period.
Shlomo Katz