Dorian Gray Controversy

The Picture of Dorian Gray was created by Ivan Albright between the years of 1943 and 1944. It was done to be presented at the movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s homonymous novel, which was written in 1891. In the novel, Dorian Gray seeks to have an immortal and attractive, youthful appearance. He then commissions a self-portrait and trades his soul so that the painting could age for and instead of him. As Gray becomes evil and commits reprimandable acts, his self-portraits suffers for him, ultimately being a representation of all his moral decay. That is the painting that Albright has brought to life, which was then used in the movie. The movie itself was shot entirely in black and white. However, the movie director, Albert Lewin, “filmed the

During his lifetime, Albright was renowned for working around the theme of aging, death and the decrepitude of body and soul. Some attribute these concerns to the fact that a lot of his work, including The Picture of Dorian Gray, was done while the World War II was still in progress, which could have made him turn towards poignant and dismal topics. In fact, Albright started his art path by documenting war injuries in detailed sketches. His paintings, at times, demonstrate his knowledge of human anatomy, and definitely display versions and extensions of the wounds seen in battle. (Odd Things I’ve

Regarding the texture, for example, it’s entirely academic for a reason: Albright would use a “brush with only a single bristle, spending hours and hours on just postage stamp-sized areas of his paintings.” (Odd Things I’ve Seen) Moreover, he would do all the background work involved in creating a masterpiece, whether that was mixing paints, building reference models, or even carving his own frames. In order to minimize glare, he would only wear black while painting, which matched the walls of his studio. (Odd Things I’ve Seen). This immense amount of dedication to each single painting is a demonstration of his passion towards the art, which he did literally until his dying days. His paintings are a “remarkable record of a man who was not only a painter, but a philosopher and a poet as well.”