Day
oil on canvas (1995), 30" x 20", 76 cm x 51cm

In the mid-1990s Pogrebinsky set out to create a whole series of very popular works known as Angels.   These works, which sold fairly quickly and the artist chose not to create that many more of them in the end, captured the lightness and philosophy of what is Philosophical Realism.

In Day (1995) Pogrebinsky painted a young woman in the environment of gold.  There is almost nothing immediately noticeable that is relevant to angels, but the closer the inspection goes the quicker the viewer is to notice the gold as a symbol of winged freedom.    Gold seems to be ruling this canvas, almost being a solid substance which keeps the angel in her skies of blue of green backgrounds.   There are two halos, the smaller one – covered in gold, green, white, and the bigger one which feeds into the massive gold.

The angel is located in a world which is not governed by any determined set of natural laws, and this abstraction gives the painting even more freedom, for that is one of the greatest achievements of Philosophical Realism.  The closer we look at the texture of the gold we see a land-like surface, with rivers, with solid deserts, with wide open spaces.   The most enchanting, and perhaps the most puzzling object, is the golden ball held lightly in her hands.    With an almost destined appearance the young angel sits, holding this radiating ball of gold with her two palms, -- perhaps a ball of the future, or simply the planet Earth.  (Detail 1).

Whatever the philosophy of the gold and the ball, the painting gives the impression of an amazing light-show; a radiating effect is achieved from the positioning of the direct center of light.   The careful choosing of the colors, such as the white dress, the background, the surface between the blocks of gold, is all part of the grand equation.    This painting, along with it’s similar works such as Morning (1995) and Evening (1995), capture a sort of timeless existence of sentient beings in a land governed only by the lawlessness of lights and colors.