In spite of his long career, and his abundant and notable artistic creation, Arturo Gordon is not one of the most popular or well-known Chilean painters - a situation which this carefully curated exhibition at Centro Cultural Las Condes may help remedy.
Delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this exhibit originally scheduled for 2020 was first offered in online format, and now it’s finally presented in in-person mode, although with some changes in the works originally chosen.
 |
| “Adoración Mariana”, oil on canvas. |
Born in Chile in 1883, Arturo Gordon began his studies in Architecture before changing the T-square for the brushes.
His painterly work was nourished by the Fine Arts Academy and important painting masters, such as Pedro Lira, Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor, and José Backhaus, as well as through countless trips and cultural encounters throughout his life.
The exhibit is composed by 43 original works in small, medium, and large formats, distributed along five rooms, which permits the visitor to enjoy comfortably a journey through the lengthy artistic career of this renowned artist.
Without an established route to follow, each room focuses on one main aspect of Gordon’s work.
Thus, in one of the rooms we find several oil paintings representing country traditions: “Adoración Mariana”, “Escena de Campo” and “El Velorio del Angelito”, which dialogue with their respective color studies hung on the opposite wall.
The adjacent room exhibits a collection of country landscapes, some of them made as studies, with ample and quick brush strokes.
The corridor, bathed in natural light, exhibits a collection of seascapes, while the main room contains Gordon’s academic work: portraits, oil paintings representing assorted daily life scenes, color studies, and landscapes.
Finally, the smallest room hosts a collection of six field studies made by Gordon, along with his palette and paint box, where he carried the small canvas to be filled with color.
But even these small field studies (23 x 12. 5 cms.) give evidence of Gordon as a masterful colorist, and his total dominion of composition.
“Estero”, oil on canvas.
In this same room, the curator and investigator of the exhibit, Pedro Maino, explains in a short video about Gordon’s role as book and magazine illustrator between 1910 through 1920.
Three of these illustrations are exhibited in the main room: two charcoals, and one drawing made on orange paper, which Gordon uses splendidly to color and shape the figures of the depicted scene.
This technique -using the background color to highlight the figures on the foreground- is also used in several of his oils, such as “Adoración de la Virgen”, and “Caserío con charco de agua”.
Thus, the painting support becomes part of the finished work, in permanent dialogue with the rest of colors and shapes.
“Caserío con charco de agua”, oil on canvas.
Orange in all its hues is a constant in Artur Gordon’s work.
From the subtle salmon pink of his landscapes to the fiery red orange of oils such as “La Huelga” and “Adoración de La Virgen”, Gordon makes of this color the focal point of his paintings, the axis over which all the rest of colors swirl, in careful contrast and harmony of hues.
“La Huelga”, oil on canvas.
Although none of the artworks specify the date in which they were made, one can deduct their location in time due to the technique and the color palette used.
Thus, for instance, we notice the strict academic technique and the influence of Gordon’s master, Pedro Lira, in his oil study, “Estudio de Cabeza de Niño”, from 1907.
Further in the exhibit, the use of mural technique is evident in the oil painting “Pescadores”, which also shows certain influence from the renown Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla.
The technique and the color palette used by Gordon in many of his country landscapes and seascapes reflect his search into impressionism, and later towards post-Impressionism, with a clear influence from the French painter Paul Cézanne.
“Botes en Concón”, oil on canvas.
The subtle atmosphere of landscapes such as “Puente sobre el Río Mapocho” and “Estación Pirque” exhibit a color palette and a technique similar to those of the English painter William Turner.
However, another oil painting, “Rocas de Concón”, detaches from Gordon’s typical color palette, using only cold hues over a rustic canvas with strangely harsh brush strokes, all of which reminds us of the work of another Latin American painter of the same era: Armando Reverón.
“Rocas de Concón”, oil on canvas.
Along the artworks, several texts guide the visitor through the meaning of Gordon’s work, and through the historical moment in which they were created, allowing for a deeper reading into his creation and a better understanding of the exhibit.
Counting with original artworks loaned specially for this exhibit by several institutions, as well as by thirteen private collections, this is probably one of the most comprehensive exhibitions of Gordon’s work.
Although many of these works are included in the digital catalogue, it is impossible to appreciate in pictures the richness of color and texture of each of them.
The subtlety of the mauves and lilacs, the intense golden hues, the suggestive roughness of the canvasses chosen by Gordon, as well as the size of each piece, add an additional dimension important to observe in person in order to appreciate each work.
A fine retrospective that’s well worth a visit.
Event: Arturo Gordon: Antología - La Irrupcción del Color
Location: Centro Cultural las Condes.
Dates: October 8th through December 4th, 2022
Hours: Tuesday through Sundays: 10:30 am to 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm.
Address: Av. Apoquindo 6560, Las Condes. Santiago, Chile. Subway: Manquehue.
Cost: Free
To Learn more
* To see most of the works included in this exhibition, including videos and explanatory texts about Artur Gordon’s work, you may still visit the online exhibition organized by the Cultural Center. However, it’s worth noting that some of these works are not currently included in the physical exhibition or have been replaced by others.
https://arturogordon.cl/
* To learn more about Arturo Gordon’s life, and see more of his mural work and illustrations, you may visit the following web page (only in Spanish):
https://www.artistasvisualeschilenos.cl/658/w3-article-40039.html
Cover image: “Estudio de Cabeza de Niño”, oil on canvas, c.1907.
Comments
Post a Comment