“The Passion of Wilde”
by: Oscar Contreras
Oil on Canvas — 24” x 30”
“Pride, for me, is reclamation. I came to this painting through a single line. Words Wilde wrote that his publisher cut from The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1890, only restored 121 years later: “I quite admit that I adore you madly, extravagantly, absurdly.” The idea that those words were considered dangerous sent me into a spiral. The trials. The imprisonment. The alias he took after prison, Sebastian Melmoth, borrowed from a martyred saint. That’s where the figure came from. Arrow through the heart. Words from The Ballad of Reading Gaol pressed against the skin. Saint, lover. I don’t think it matters which. I paint to follow a feeling to its end. This is where it took me. And Pride, to me, is putting that figure at the center of the canvas and refusing to look away from what people like him survived.”
This piece is available for sale.
To purchase, please visit Oscar’s website.
