In the History of Art you will rarely find an artist who was loved, praised and appreciated while he was alive. Luckily, there are some exceptions. 

The art of Boris Valejo is loved, praised and appreciated both by the young and the older generation as well as by the wise people who look at the art of painting with a critical eye. He is a painter of extraordinary talent who has a wide range of interests and whose inspiration is powerful. He is an artist who has the ability to unite distant mythical times with the present moment as well as with distant future in his work.

Valejo plays with various stylistical orientations and various genres surprisingly easily, thus creating his own stylistic basis. You will probably say that this is standard mark of post -modernism. Of course, I agree with you. However, I would like to focus your attention to those characteristics of his style which cannot be marked as belonging to any conventional standard, which are a part of general culture of the human civilization.

This artist does not avoid universal topics and principles of art and human life- these are the topics and principles of artistic creation which are so general that you have to be a genius to show how special you are. In his work, you will often see the myth about Icarus, well known legends, but ,at the same time, urban legends and a very rich arsenal of fictional themes. His topics are also man’s aboriginal desire to overgrow himself through inevitable Eros and artist’s inner urge to be “psychic” (Rimbaud) and to have a deep look at distant future.

© Nikola Kitanovic, 2002