Alejandro Obregn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Alejandro Obregn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Daniel Alberto Alejandro Mara de la Santsima Trinidad Obregn Roses, commonly known as Alejandro Obregn, (4 June 1920 11 April 1992) was a Colombian painter, muralist, sculptor and engraver.

Alejandro Obregn

Contents
1 Biography 2 Style and elements 3 Periods 4 Inuences 5 The "Big Five" 6 La Violencia works 7 Murals 8 Exhibitions and awards 9 Selected artworks 10 References 11 External links
Photograph by Guillermo Angulo. Birth name Born Alejandro Jess Obregn Roses 4 June 1920 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain 11 April 1992 (aged 71) Cartagena, Bolvar, Colombia Ilva Rash-Isla Rodriguez Freda Sargent Sonia Osorio Saint-Malo Spanish-Colombian Painting Abstract, Surrealism, Cubism Estudiante Muerto El Velorio Tierra, Mar, y Aire

Died

Spouse

Biography
Obregn was born in Barcelona, Spain, the son of a Colombian father and a Catalan mother. The Obregn family owned a fabrics factory in Barranquilla.[1] Most of his childhood was spent in Barranquilla, Colombia and Liverpool, England. After returning to Barranquilla,

Nationality Field Movement Works

he decided to become an artist.[2] He studied ne arts in Boston for a year in 1939, then returned to Barcelona to serve as Vice Consul of Colombia for four years. He married Ilva Rasch-Isla, the daughter of poet Miguel Rasch-Isla, during his time in Spain.[1] In 1948, he became Director of the School of Fine Arts in Santaf de Bogot, where he was inuenced by the fresco style of masters Pedro Nel Gmez and Santiago Martinez Delgado.[citation needed] He left the School of

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Fine Arts and moved to France with his second wife, Sonia Osorio; he later married his third wife, English painter Freda Sargent.[3] After travelling around Europe, he returned to Barranquilla in 1955.[3] Obregn died on April 11, 1992, succumbing to a brain tumor. He lived and worked exclusively in Cartagena from 1970 until his death in 1992, the las 22 years of his life. Career Obregn presented his rst solo exhibition in Colombia in 1945.[1] He participated in the fth and sixth Saln de Artistas Colombianos in 1944 and 1945, which attracted attention from press and critics.[1] In 1945, Obregn settled in Barranquilla where he won rst prize for Dorso de mujer at the rst Saln Anual de Artistas Costeos and showed his second solo exhibition in February 1946.[1] In 1949, he moved to Paris and exhibited work throughout France, Germany and Switzerland.[citation needed] He then moved to Alba, near Avignon, where he remained until 1955. A painting from that year, Still Life in Yellow, shows that his personal style was fully developed, with the formal elements that came to characterize his work.[citation needed] In 1955, Souvenir of Venice (1954) was acquired for the Museum of Modern Art New York, making Obregn one of the few Colombians in the museum's collection.[3] In 1962, he won the Saln de Artistas Colombianos Prize, establishing him as a major 20th century Colombian artist.[citation needed]

Style and elements

Obregn is primarily a painter. His compositions are usually divided horizontally into two areas of dierent 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.[4] Obregn is a good example of the abstract Surrealist trend in Latin America.[5] Color plays a fundamental role in integrating the structures of his design, using geometric forms and expressionism.[citation needed] Both on an aective 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 Marta Traba identied a series of characteristic elements in Obregon's work: personal poetic values; self suciency in regard to reality, indeed starting

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from it; expressive intention; freedom of form; search for identity based on the landscape, zoology, and ora; elliptic space people by magic elements; and contempt for urban culture.[2] Also unique to Obregon is that instead of faithfully painting what he sees, he made extensive use of his personal imagination and vitality.[2] From his still life's of the 1950s to his landscapes of the sky, the sea and the buildings of Cartagena de Indias, where he worked until his death, Obregn's work is multifaceted. He conveys his feeling for the geography and wildlife of Colombia, his love of family and his passion for women. His subjects remind the viewer of loyalty, friendship, memory and ultimately of the wonder of life, however insignicant it may seem in terms of the cosmos.

Periods
Between 1942 and 1946, Obregn assimilated dierent inuences.[2] His painting shows the inuence of Picasso and Graham Sutherland, although these are only points of departure. Between 1947 and 1957, inuenced by Goya and Picasso, he painted themes such as lunatic asylums, madmen in cafes, and dogs. He was witness to the popular revolt of April 9, 1948, and became especially interested in interpreting that event, which would reach its maximum expression in his oil Violencia.[2] In his third period, from 1958 to 1965, Obregn made another trip to Europe and the United States.[2] During the 1960s, Obregn used a pictographic system of his own invention, with formal and chromatic symbols. This system was recognized at the Ninth So Paulo Biennial, where he represented Colombia in his own pavilion and was awarded the Francisco Matarazzo Sobrinho Grand Prize for Latin America.[citation needed] After 1966, once he earned wide recognition at home and abroad, he switched from oils to acrylic.[2]

Inuences
Over a period of four decades, Obregn incorporated into his painting a repertory of themes that are unmistakably Colombian in character. Obregn took inuence from European culture, while retaining an Andean imagery and stylistic creation, using guitars, bulls, and the Andean condor in his pieces.[6] In 1959, Obregn painted his rst condor, which has since appeared in almost fty canvases during his career. While alluding to the nation, as the condor gures in Colombia's coat of arms, in Obregn'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 inuence of Picasso, whose Cubist inuence was the starting point for Obregn's artwork. [6][7] At dierent times throughout his career, Obregn produced works related to
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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"

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

La Violencia works
El Velorio (The Wake), also known by El estudiante (The Student) and other similar names, was one of Obregn's most prominent commentaries on La Violencia. In this piece, Obregn displays his early cubist inuence, evident in the reduction of details and objects into elemental shapes.[8] While the simple image appears to display a body, with bandages covering the man's body and a partially severed leg, the context of the piece provides more information. [8] Obregn painted this piece during La Violencia in Colombia. Obregn was one of the rst Colombian artists to comment on La Violencia.[8] El Velorio refers to a specic event that happened on June 8 and 9 of 1954; a student uprising at the National University against the dictatorship of President Gustavo Rojas Pinilla resulted in the massacre of thirteen students by army forces.[8] Contemporaries Ignacio Gmez Jaramillo and Enrique Grau also witnessed this event, but Obregn's painting is more abstract and more expressive than their interpretations of the same event.[9] The departure from anecdotal issues and the use of non-naturalistic lines and colors and fragmentation of the gure with expressive purposes in El Velorio inuenced other artists interested in addressing the sociopolitical issues during the sixties.[9] In La Violencia (1962), Obregn conveyed the ominous atmosphere and perversion evident in the violence that occurred in rural areas. [9] This painting suggests the gure of a woman on her back, a gure which blends with the landscape. She has been attacked and killed; the skin of her face and 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 La Violencia

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cannot tie the painting to any specic instance, it can be inferred that he was aware of the atrocities of the time.[9]

Murals
Tierra, Mar, y Aire (Earth, Sea, and Wind) is a mural currently on the faade of the Mezhari building, located at 53 Carrera and 76th Street in Barranquilla, Colombia. Obregn was commissioned to create the mural by Samuel Mezhari, father of the current owner and resident of the building, Mair MezhariTourgemen, when the artist was at the midpoint of his artistic career. Obregn was paid 15,000.00 pesos to complete the project.[10] It took Obregn around a year to nish 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 cristinac on the wall of the Mezhari building. [10] Tierra, Mar y Aire covers the entire height of the three-story building wall. The surface of the work measures 9 6 m (29.52 19.68 ft.).[10] Obregn utilized intense colors and symbols that pay tribute to the tropical nature of the area. Although, the mural is in need of repair, no eort has been made as the materials are no longer being manufactured.[10] Cosas de Aire (Air Things), created in 1970, was donated by The BBVA Bank of Colombia to the Museo de Arte Moderno de Brranquilla 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 ve murals painted by Obregn in Barranquilla.[11]

Exhibitions and awards

1956 Cattle Drowning in the Magdelena River, Gulf Caribbean Competition, Houston, Texas. First prize[12] 1956 Estudiante Muerto, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation International Exhibition. National prize 1962 Saln de Artistas Colombianos 1999 Arte y violencia en Colombia desde 1948, Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogota, Columbia[9] 2009 50 Years, 50 Works: Art of Latin America, Caribbean of the 20th Century, Museo de Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia[13]

Selected artworks
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Tierra, Mar, y Aire, 1957[10] Estudiante Muerto, 1956[14] Last Condor, 1965[14] Torocondor[14] Approaching Cyclone, 1960[14] Carnivorous Flowers[14] Huesos de mis bestias: el alcatraz, 1966[14] Cosas de Aire, 1970 [11]

References
1. ^ a b c d e Chico, Camilo. "Libro sobre Alejandro Obregn (I)" (http://www.resonancias.org/content/read/1375/libro-sobre-alejandro-obregon-i-porcamilo-chico/) (in Spanish). Resonancias. Retrieved 27 April 2012. 2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Velez, Santiago Londono (2001). Benjamin Villegas, ed. Colombian Art: 3,500 Years. Villegas Editores. pp. 309312. ISBN 9589698271. 3. ^ a b c Camilo, Chico. "Libro sobre Alejandro Obregn (II)" (http://www.resonancias.org/content/read/1393/libro-sobre-alejandro-obregon-ii-porcamilo-chico/) (in Spanish). Resonancias. Retrieved 27 April 2012. 4. ^ Johns Hopkins University Press (1994). Art of Latin America: 19001980. Baltimore: Inter-American Development Bank. ISBN 0-906027-33-0. 5. ^ Scott, John F (1999). Latin American Art: ancient to modern. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. ISBN 0813016452. 6. ^ a b Baddeley, Oriana; Valerie Fraser (1989). Drawing the line: art and cultural identity in contemporary Latin America. New York: Verso. pp. 7273. ISBN 0860912396. 7. ^ Museum of Modern Art, New York (1993). Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. p. 129. ISBN 0870704311. 8. ^ a b c d Sullivan, Edward J (2007). The language of objects in the art of the Americas. Hong Kong, China: Edward J. Sullivan. ISBN 9780300111064. 9. ^ a b c d e Malagon-Kurka, Mary Margaret. "Dos lenguajes contrastantes en el arte colombiano: nueva guracin e indexicalidad, en el contexto de la problemtica sociopoltica de las dcadas de 1960 y 1980" (http://search.proquest.com/docview /233251476/1361D45508884E553BE/6?accountid=1149#center) (in Spanish). Revista de Estudios Sociales. Retrieved 29 April 2012. 10. ^ a b c d e "Obregn Mural in Urgent Need of Restoration" (http://www.artnexus.com /Notice_View.aspx?DocumentID=24143). ArtNexus. Retrieved 20 April 2012. 11. ^ a b ArtNexus. "Alejandro Obregn BBVA Mural Museo de Arte Moderno de Barranquilla Colombia" (http://www.artnexus.com /Notice_View.aspx?DocumentID=19827). ArtNexus. ArtNexus. Retrieved 27 April 2012.

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12. ^ Traba, Marta (1994). Art of Latin America, 19001980. Inter-American Development Bank. pp. 84, 9091, 127. ISBN 0940602717. 13. ^ US Fed News Service. "IDB SPONSORS 50 YEARS, 50 WORKS: ART OF LATIN AMERICA, CARIBBEAN OF THE 20TH CENTURY" (http://search.proquest.com /docview/470349395/1361D45508884E553BE/3?accountid=1149). US Fed News Service. Retrieved 29 April 2012. 14. ^ a b c d e f ARTstor. "Search "Obregon" " (http://library.artstor.org/library /welcome.html#3%7Csearch%7C6%7CAll20Collections3A20obregon%7CFiltered20S earch%7C%7C %7Ctype3D3626kw3Dobregon26geoIds3D26clsIds3D26id3Dall26bDate3D26eDate3D 26dExact3D3126prGeoId3D). ARTstor, Inc. Retrieved 27 April 2012.

External links
(Spanish) National Museum of Colombia Obregon

(http://www.museonacional.gov.co/resena.html) (Spanish) Book on Alejandro Obregon (I) by Camilo Chico (http://www.resonancias.org/content/read/1375/libro-sobre-alejandroobregon-i-por-camilo-chico/) (Spanish) Book on Alejandro Obregon (II) (http://www.resonancias.org /content/read/1393/libro-sobre-alejandro-obregon-ii-por-camilo-chico/) ArtNexus "Obregon Mural in Urgent Need of Restoration" (http://www.artnexus.com/Notice_View.aspx?DocumentID=24143) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alejandro_Obregn& oldid=599586360" Categories: Modern artists Modern painters Colombian painters 1920 births 1992 deaths Naturalized citizens of Colombia People from Barcelona Spanish emigrants to Colombia This page was last modied on 14 March 2014 at 14:32. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-prot organization.

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