Santana - Abraxas (1970)

Santana - Abraxas (1970)


Annunciation - Mati Klarwein - 1961 - 128 x 88 cm.


Annunciation (detalle) - Mati Klarwein - 1961 - 128 x 88 cm.

"Annunciation is the first painting I painted after my initial New York awakening. I was 28 years old and at the peak of my molecular bio-energy. You can feel the sudden burst of the Big Apple's electric zap in the composition after all the early years of adolescent brooding over potatoes and eggs and the romantic nostalgia of the preceeding Flight to Egypt.

In those days I had an obsessional passion for the female body that lasted deep into my thirties (to be replaced by rocks 'n' stones).

Years later Carlos Santana saw a reproduction of the Annunciation in a magazine and wanted it for the cover of his all time best selling Abraxas album. It did me a world of good. I saw the album pinned to the wall in a shaman's mud hut in Niger and inside a Rastafarian's ganja hauling truck in Jamaica. I was in good global company, muchissimas gracias, Carlito!"

Extracts from Mati's book 'Collected Works 1959-1975'.