THE ARTS IN NEW YORK CITY

One exhibit my group stumbled into was the Quentin Curry exhibit entitled “Su Casa Mi Casa”. What attracted us inward was seeing the artist’s brightly colored paintings from the outside window. As soon as I entered, I got a different feeling than I had from the galleries we had entered only a few minutes before. Curry’s art connected with me on another level; there was something inviting about is subject matter and warm colors. Beyond the front room lay a narrow hallway going through employee offices to a back room containing more of the exhibit, and in my opinion the heart of the exhibit.

While walking to the back room, I felt as if I was not meant to be there but had stumbled upon a great secret. In the entire exhibit did not have an explanation about the exhibit or information about the artist, but it was suiting for the exhibit. When I walked into the back room, suddenly, the title of the exhibit made sense. In the back room there were sculptures by the artist that were furniture for a home. Also, the paintings on the wall worked well on one side there were two pieces resembling houses from the Mediterranean part of Spain (this was indicated by the architecture of the houses depicted in the paintings). On the opposite wall was a view out a large glass window/ sliding glass door on to a tropical beach, indicating a home somewhere in Latin America. On the wall adjacent to the to others there were two other works, both indicating a reference to Mexico, although in different ways. The works on all three walls together indicated a communal feeling. This feeling was the fact that the artist is very proud of his Latin American roots, possibly specifically Mexican. The first two pieces I mentioned, the Spanish homes, indicate such a feeling first due to the fact that in both paintings, the houses are destroyed. Also, both homes indicate remnants of Colonial Spain with the paintings of those time periods strewn among the rubble of the home. The two paintings together represent an abandonment of European Spain and its colonial rule over the Latin American countries. The recognize the Latin American peoples’ acceptance of their identity separate from that of Spain. The painting on the opposite strengthens that idea, but with a meaning of its own when looked at separately. This painting rather has a tranquil scene and the home is intact. The two paintings on the wall between both walls of homes yet again recognizes the identity of the Latin American people. In one painting there is a shrine built to the dead on El Dia de la Muerte, or Halloween, in Mexico. Among the shrine are the common skeleton dolls found in the country to represent the souls of those who have passed. The painting to its left is one depicting the California freeway, and in my opinion heading to Mexico. This painting shows motion of the cars on the freeway with flowing brush-strokes, litter on the sides, and off the sides of the road the toxic smoke-stacks of factories made with an eerie yellow on the fluorescent pink background. Among all the paintings there were techniques that Curry used in common. These include the use of fluorescent colored paint giving an overall sense of invitation into the painting, despite scene subject such as a destroyed home. Another technique used among all the paintings was the use of texture. The artist poked holes through the paint and canvas to give a different level and display something else hidden in its context. In the painting of the freeway the words “Come Back Soon” are projected into the sky; in the paintings of the destroyed Mediterranean homes there are face prints. This extra element gives the observer something more to look for and something else to come their own conclusions about the exhibit on.

This exhibit was very interesting, the artist’s technique was different, so I recommend that you take a look and come to your own assumptions of what the message Quentin Curry is trying to convey is.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 8:40 pm and is filed under