i went to the Antonio López García exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston last week, with the expectation of being extremely impressed, but probably not particularly interested. boy, was i wrong. i had seen one of his paintings before (Sink and Mirror, 1967, oil on wood) in a photo history lecture, and had done a little background research on him, so i knew about his style of borderline obsessive realism (he is considered a “master realist” and sometimes takes years to finish a single piece), a skill which impresses me to no end, but does not generally capture my enthusiasm.
before i get to how terribly wrong i was about García; some quick background information. García is a 72 year old working and revered Spanish artist, who has rarely been shown in the US, this exhibit is in fact, his first solo museum show in the US. he is proficient in drawing, oil painting, carved wood sculpture and plaster bas-relief.
the first piece that really grabbed me was a 3D piece, Percha con Ropa (1963-64, Polychromed wood). it’s an actual door along with some of García’s own clothes, that creates a beautiful dusty bronze composition that also serves as a self portrait. i was then drawn to another 3D piece, which really struck me- it was a drastic change from the panoramic paintings of Madrid and hyper-realistic life-sized refrigerator that had been in the last room- it was a wood sculpture painting of a woman peering down the hall at a levitating child. as it turns out, García had a stranger side, and some of his work (particularly from 1957-64) could fit into the category of “magic realism”.
this happened again and again throughout the exhibit, amongst the realistic paintings (with a fantastic understanding of depth i might add) there would be pieces that were slightly off, or odd, in some way.
probably my favorite piece in the exhibit, La Cena (1971-80, oil on board) i wrote off as uninteresting at first, but quickly noted that it had multiple quirky things going on. the woman on the right’s face seems to be painted over, moved lower, but leaving traces of the old face behind, creating a disturbing and surreal image. a piece of meat on the table, under closer inspection, is actually a magazine cutout, which leads to further inspection of the other food items, such as the apple, which is also a magazine cutout, but mostly painted over.
my close second favorite piece in the exhibit is a beautiful painting, again falling into the magic realism category, Niña Muerta (1957) which depicts a small dead girl in a box that looks, to me, like a cigar box.
needless to say, he piqued my interest. the exhibit is definitely worth checking out. it closes July 27th, and contains over 60 paintings, drawings and sculptures, so everyone should hurry to go see it!
website with photos of 113 of Garcia’s works
MFA’s information on the exhibit
really informative Audio Slideshow from Boston.com
photos: http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/sub.asp?key=15&subkey=5339
and http://pintura.aut.org/BU04?Autnum=5.787
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