Gary Nader Fine Arts

Still Life. Summer 2009.  

Gary Nader Fine Arts announces the opening of the exhibition “Insights on Still Life: From Matisse and Picasso to Botero and Muñoz Vera” showcasing the works of established modern and contemporary artists Fernando Botero, Claudio Bravo, Mario Carreño, Julio Larraz, Henri Matisse, Armando Morales, Guillermo Muñoz Vera, Amelia Peláez and Pablo Picasso, among others.
 
From Matisse still life paintings, “Deux péches”, 1936, oil on canvas, where the artist simplified perspective, concentrating the representation of still life objects to bold, flat outlines filled with bright pure colors to Picasso’s “Composition a la Mandoline”, 1959, oil on canvas, focusing on geometrical forms, deconstructing objects, and integrating figures and background as a unique complementary Cubists visual experience; “Insights on Still Life” explores the very different artistic approaches on the same genre.
 
Botero’s aesthetic thinking, sense of scale and peculiar style of inflated volumes is readily observed on   “Sandía”, oil on canvas from 1998, where voluptuous, corpulent figures with exaggerated proportions are the vibrant focal point of the pictorial composition.  Alternatively, Muñoz Vera interprets still life subjects with a combination of Pop-Photo-Hyperrealism approach, revealing an illusionistic representation of the true object and its physical structure. In “Clavos encontrados II”, 1997, oil on canvas laid on wood, the artist exercises a visual scrutiny of trivial objects by exposing their simple and austere beauty.
 
Carreño takes a very different approach to the still life with his “Vaso con Flores”, 1943, oil on board, showing a large vase of flowers filled with dynamic brush strokes and vibrant colors. In contrast, his painting “Interior”, 1945, is an example of Carreño’s geometric interpretation of the genre, once again using a vibrant palette and a great control of light and color.
 
Armando Morales with his distinguished highly structured compositions and profound understanding of color, as well as control of tonal variation is superbly represented by “Naturaleza Muerta”, 1981, oil on canvas, where recognizable objects and sensual, heavy and voluptuous fruits, evoked the softness of human skin.
 
Julio Larraz, known for his realistic body of work with clear allusions to his homeland cultural background and personal experiences, as well as his interesting and peculiar preference of fruit for the tropics is very well portrayed through his oil on canvas from 2007 “Vailes Marineris”, a rich volumetric and vibrant watermelon that appear to viewers as a delicious extraterrestrial planet.
 
“Insights on Still Life: From Matisse and Picasso to Botero and Muñoz Vera” is open to the public Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Gary Nader Fine Art
62 NE 27th Street
Miami, FL 33137
305.576.0256
www.garynader.com