I saw the works of Larry Elmore for the first time when a group of completely young artists visited me and drew my 

attention to him. At first, I thought that those children did not know anything about art. But, being a curious man, I looked for his work and realized that those “children” were right.

It was a really great artist who easily gets into our souls and captures them by the power of his talent and the authenticity of his expression.

Elmore discovers the world of fairies, fiction, magic, connecting it with the miracle of human existence by the preciseness of a classicist and by imagination of a post-modernist and a great artist.

You will find Elmore’s soul mates more easily in literature than in the art of painting and obvious examples are Umberto Ecco and Tolkin. Of course, when I say “soul mates”, I do not think that Elmore follows the paths defined by the two writers. What I am talking about is the inner vocation and the power of expression.

His paintings have the story, mythos, the soul of tragedy according to Aristotle, painted through parabolas, allegories and, very often, metaphors. The painter is willfully, powerfully and utterly inspired by it. While doing this, he takes us into the “ altered state of consciousness”, the state of purgatory or even better, the state of the very art itself.

What is especially fascinating about Elmore is his highly consistent denial of any kind of didactics, any kind of “usability” or “usefulness” of a work of art. With him, his work is devoid of function, almost in a Parnassian way, but not cold, thus being brought to art as a state. I would say that it is all about extraordinary courage and challenge, about the way art is taken only by the chosen ones.

© Nikola Kitanovic, 2002