'Mars: Fire Dance' Original Painting

'Mars: Fire Dance'
Watercolor and metallic acrylic on 100 % cotton archival paper
5 x 7" matted and framed with glass
Ready to hang. Signed by Martin Hsu
2023

[ Holst's Planets Collection ]
Solo exhibition by Martin Hsu
2/7-3/4, 2023
CC Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

"Inspired by English composer Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite, The Planets. Written between 1914 and 1917, each movement is named after a planet of the Solar System. Holst described his music as “mood pictures” that convey the spirit and mythology of the planets’ corresponding astrological signs.

With Holst’s music as a launching point, Hsu depicts each planet as a cosmic messenger, both in human and animal forms. From Mars, The Bringer of War to Neptune, the Mystic, each planetary personification in Hsu’s artwork incorporates elements from Greek mythology, nature, and indigenous symbolism from around the world.

​These thought-provoking depictions of the myths, moods, and cosmic mysteries of the planets of the Solar System will invite viewers to appreciate the beauty and infinite possibilities of the universe, both within ourselves and in the skies above."