Bull paintings

The Raw side, bull paintings

The Raw side by artist Marko Gavrilovic

"For me, every bull painting is a different story.
You will never find any of them, to look the same".The bull is a complex figure of symbolism. At once masculine, strong, and sturdy, a figure of anger and aggression, but too often also the victim. The bull is killed in a show of strength, surrounded in the act of ritual, tamed, and reduced of power by a superior man.
Traditionally, The Bull symbolizes stamina, fertility, and hard work. Strong, and sturdy but could be a fragile symbol of power.
My Bulls are not of that kind.

Bull painting history

A different representation of the bull was given in ancient Greece. The Greeks considered the bull to be an animal of great nobility.
Many found Greek inscriptions are referring to the "Noble Bull". Bull-cults were common during the times of Ancient Greece.
Dionysus was a god of life and fertility. The Greeks introduced two new rituals in their worshipping of the Noble Bull. They believed that drinking large quantities of wine would give them the mystical powers of the gods. In doing so, they believed the wine was the actual substance of the bull god.

Bull painting process, The Raw side series

Bull Paintings

The bull figure appeared quite often in their beautiful bull paintings which are considered to be among the finest works of this type ever created. Greek sculptures of the homed Dionysus god of wine and fertility are a representation of a man of great strength and unlimited wisdom.
Latter-day artists were inspired by the myth handed down through legend.

Bull paintings by Marko Gavrilovic, Solo show, The Flow in Paris

Hercules had many adventures in which the bull played an important part. His struggle with the Cretan bull has been a favorite subject of Greek vase painting. He captured the wild Cretan bull after it had been set loose to terrorize the countryside by the jealous Poseidon.

Bull painting on a rose background, The Raw side
The Raw side, Yellow horns, bull painting

Nearly all of the ancient cultures worshipped the bull as a supreme god. Although the worshipping rites varied in many ways and the bull represented many different ideas, the bull consistently represented the supreme force that controlled things that were beyond man's power.
In short, the bull was a tool used to give manpower overall. Whenever there was a need or a desire that man could not satisfy himself, it was the all powerful bull that came to his aid.