Alejandro Obregón

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Obregón is primarily a painter. His compositions are usually divided horizontally into two areas of different pictorial value or size, but of equal visual intensity. Other elements are placed against them. His style is characterized by use of color, exploration of traits and strokes through brush handling, and employment of transparency and impastoes.[2] Landscapes were translated into geometric symbols of Colombia.^[5] Obregón is a good example of the abstract Surrealist trend in Latin America.^[6]

Color plays a fundamental role in integrating the structures of his design, using geometric forms and expressionism.^{[citation needed]} Both on an affective level and as a unifying element of the composition, color is an essential part of Obregon's style. The elegiac and dramatic tone of El Velorio, for example, is heightened by the dominance of the red color in the geometrically articulated composition.^[2]

Critic

His still lifes are often accompanied by lush samples of fauna and flora. In some cases, the protagonist is the flower, as inFlor de mangle (1965), or chameleons, as in Dos camaleones (1962), Jardínes tropicales (1962), and its sister piece Homenaje a Zurbarán (1962), and Jardín barroco (1965). In Obergon's, El último cóndor (1965), the artist has the animal standing on the ground, purple feathers seeming to flutter from its chest. As if denouncing the real danger of his kind's extinction, the bird stands next to a colorful mangrove, paradoxically also affected by human intervention.

Periods

Between 1942 and 1946, Obregón assimilated different influences.

Obregón took influence from European culture, while retaining an Andean imagery and stylistic creation, using guitars, bulls, and the Andean condor in his pieces.[7] In 1959, Obregón painted his first condor, which has since appeared in almost fifty canvases during his career. While alluding to the nation, as the condor figures in Colombia's coat of arms, in Obregón's work, the condor also refers to the exaltation of the might of American nature, the ideal of liberty, and the power of vitality.^[2] The use of guitar iconography may have come from the influence of Picasso, whose Cubist influence was the starting point for Obregón's artwork.^[7][8]

At different times throughout his career, Obregón produced works related to political violence in Colombia, such as La Violencia, since 1948. Estudiante Muerto, awarded the national prize for Colombia at the 1956 Guggenheim International Exhibition,^{[citation needed]} belonged to a group of paintings commemorating students and popular leaders who lost their lives during this period of social unrest.

The "Big Five"

Obregón is the artist perhaps most closely identified with the spirit of artistic renewal manifested in the 1950s in Colombia. It was during this period that Obregón, Enrique Grau, Fernando Botero, Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar and Édgar Negret, came to be known as the "Big Five" of Colombian art. Also in 1956, Obregón's Cattle Drowning in the Magdalena River was awarded first prize at the Gulf Caribbean Competition in Houston, Texas, an exhibition that also included works by others from the "Big Five".

La Violencia works

Velorio (Wake), also known as Estudiante fusilado (Executed Student) and other similar names, was one of Obregón's most prominent commentaries on

In Violencia (1962), Obregón conveyed the ominous atmosphere and perversion evident in the violence that occurred in rural areas.[10] This painting suggests the figure of a pregnant woman on her back, a figure which blends with the landscape. She has been attacked and killed; the skin of her face seems to have been torn up. The gray body with scratches and subtle touches of red creates an impression of desolation. While the presentation date of Violencia cannot tie the painting to any specific instance, it can be inferred that he was aware of the atrocities of the time.^[10]

Murals

Tierra, mar y aire (Earth, Sea, and Wind) is a mural currently on the façade of the Mezrahi building, located at 53 Carrera and 76th Street in Barranquilla, Colombia. Obregón was commissioned to create the mural by Samuel Mezrahi, father of the current owner and resident of the building, Mair Mezrahi-Tourgemen, when the artist was at the midpoint of his artistic career. Obregón was paid 15,000.00 pesos to complete the project.^[11] It took Obregón around a year to finish the mural, as he chose an extremely delicate and time-consuming approach, requiring a complex process called mosaic. To construct the mural, he glued individual pieces of ceramic tiles (Cristanac) on the wall of the Mezrahi building.^[11] Tierra, mar y aire covers the entire height of the three-story building wall. The surface of the work measures 9 m × 6 m (30 ft × 20 ft).^[11] Obregón utilized intense colors and symbols that pay tribute to the tropical nature of the area. Although the mural is in need of repair, no effort has been made as the materials are no longer being manufactured.^[11]

Cosas de aire (Air Things), created in 1970, was donated by The BBVA Bank of Colombia to the Museo de Arte Moderno de Barranquilla in 2008. It is an acrylic mural on mortar cement, measuring 16.5x9 meters, featuring bright and sweeping geometric patterns devoid of the brushstrokes that are typical of his work. It is the last of a series of five murals painted by Obregón in Barranquilla.^[12]

Exhibitions and awards

• 1956 Cattle Drowning in the Magdelena River, Gulf Caribbean Competition, Houston, Texas. First prize^[13]
• 1956 Estudiante muerto, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation International Exhibition. National prize
• 1962
  Salón de Artistas Colombianos
• 1999 Arte y violencia en Colombia desde 1948, Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá, Colombia^[10]
• 2009 50 Years, 50 Works: Art of Latin America, Caribbean of the 20th Century,
  Medellin, Colombia^[14]

• Tierra, Mar, y Aire, 1957[11]
• Estudiante Muerto, 1956^[15]
• Tropical Jardines, 1962
• Last Condor, 1965^[15]
• Torocondor^[15]
• Approaching Cyclone, 1960^[15]
• Carnivorous Flowers^[15]
• Huesos de mis bestias: el alcatraz, 1966^[15]
• Cosas de Aire, 1970 ^[12]

References