CUPID (AMOR VINCIT OMNIA) — BLUE

Magnus Gjoen
2020
Edition 35 of 50
50 × 72.5 cm
Archival pigment inks on 308gsm cotton rag
Signed and numbered by the artist
From The Allun Lewis Collection

THE STORY BEHIND THE PIECE

The image hasn't changed.

But the way I see it has.

This is another of the Cupid — Amor Vincit Omnia works within my Magnus Gjoen collection.

The composition is exactly the same.

Cupid, one of the most enduring symbols of love, embraces an object created for destruction.

A bomb.

And running quietly across it are the words that originally drew me towards this series:

AMOR VINCIT OMNIA

Love Conquers All.

Yet in this version, everything is rendered in this extraordinary deep blue.

And somehow that changes the entire mood of the work.

THE COLOUR BLUE

Where the red version feels immediate, passionate and perhaps even dangerous, the blue feels calmer.

More considered.

Almost peaceful.

Blue is a colour we associate with completely different emotions.

The sky.

The sea.

Calmness.

Trust.

Stability.

Peace.

And that creates another wonderful contradiction.

Because the object Cupid is embracing represents none of those things.

It's a weapon.

Something created for destruction has been presented in a colour we instinctively associate with calm.

And the longer I look at it, the more interesting that contradiction becomes.

LOVE AND DESTRUCTION

Cupid doesn't appear frightened.

He isn't turning away from the bomb.

He isn't trying to destroy it.

He's holding it.

There's something strangely tender about the gesture.

And perhaps that's what makes the image so powerful.

Magnus takes two symbols from completely different worlds and forces them together.

One represents our capacity to love.

The other represents our capacity to destroy.

And between them sit four words:

Amor Vincit Omnia.

Perhaps Cupid is protecting us from the weapon.

Perhaps love is somehow neutralising it.

Perhaps the work is questioning whether love really can overcome humanity's capacity for violence.

Or perhaps it means something completely different.

That's for the person standing in front of it to decide.

SAME IMAGE. DIFFERENT EMOTION.

Owning several colourways of this work has given me an interesting opportunity.

Normally, when we look at two different artworks, everything changes — the composition, imagery, colours and subject.

Here, almost nothing changes.

Except the colour.

And yet my emotional response to each version is completely different.

The red feels passionate and dangerous.

The green has an almost classical, sculptural quality.

And this blue version feels calmer and more reflective.

Same Cupid.

Same bomb.

Same words.

Different lens.

And I find that fascinating.

35 OF 50

My example is number 35 from the edition of 50, signed and numbered by Magnus.

Created in 2020, the work measures 50 × 72.5 cm and was produced using archival pigment inks on 308gsm cotton rag.

I enjoy recording the edition numbers within the collection because while every example carries the same image, each numbered work has its own individual place within the edition.

This one is:

35 / 50

And it now has its own place within the wider story of my Magnus collection.

AMOR VINCIT OMNIA

What ultimately connects all of these Cupid works for me isn't the colour.

It's those words.

Love Conquers All.

The idea is ancient.

The image is contemporary.

And the question sitting between them is timeless.

Can love really overcome everything?

History might give us plenty of reasons to doubt it.

But humanity has spent thousands of years continuing to believe that it can.

And maybe that's what I take from this particular blue version.

Against something created to destroy, Cupid isn't fighting.

He isn't running.

He's simply holding on.

WHY IT BELONGS IN MY COLLECTION

The more these different versions sit alongside one another, the more I appreciate them as a group rather than simply as individual prints.

Together, they demonstrate something I believe very strongly about art.

What we see is only part of what determines what we feel.

Change the colour and our interpretation changes.

Change the person standing in front of it and it changes again.

Which brings me back, once more, to the philosophy behind the collection:

The freedom to see through somebody else's eyes without surrendering our own.

Magnus gives us Cupid.

He gives us the bomb.

He gives us four words.

Everything after that belongs to us.

Amor Vincit Omnia.

Love Conquers All.

From The Allun Lewis Collection