Masters of Western Painting
2023
Text mural.
Dimensions variable.
Acrylic paint on posters.
Dimensions variable.
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In The Best Job in the World (2021) I performed a series of interviews to Spanish artists who had abandoned art. These conversations led me to wonder why I am l active as an artist, and also, which conditions and events occurred in the lives of the artists in Art History that could have awakened their vocation and which could help to develop it along with their talent?
In this text mural and series of interventions in posters acquired in museum shops or fabricated for the occasion, I aimed to trace these questions by using the artist’s biography as a tool to trace Western artistic “genius” in a critical way, relating them to the three forms of capital designated by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu – social, economic and cultural – as the main resources that an individual has when he or she arrives in the world.
Presented together in a large-scale wall installation in my solo exhibition The Origin of Forms at Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Móstoles, Spain, 2023-2024) the text mural is a carefully edited text resultant from my inquiry in the early biographies of one hundred Western dead painters – from Giotto to Paula Rego –, in official biographical sources –such as Encyclopedia Britannica –, paying special attention to the social and psychological environment in which these artists grew up. This led me to observe existing patterns such as, for example, the connections of their family members with circles of influence and power; the transmission of sensitivity, often through female family members; the family’s frequent opposition to the artist pursuing a career in art; their horoscope, or the encouragement of their talent by their belonging to a lineage of artists.
The intervened posters present images of very famous paintings by the forementioned artists, partially hidden under a found phrase from their biography, outlined with acrylic paint. This exercise aims to provoke a round trip for us to read their work through a certain biographical prism, whether social, psychological or cultural.
Press/ Texts:
· Tania Pardo, ‘A Reflection Based on Origin and Form’, Cristina Garrido. The Origin of Forms. Ed. Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (2024).
· Joshua Decter, ‘Being Cristina Garrido’, Cristina Garrido. The Origin of Forms. Ed. Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (2024).
· Nuria Peist, ‘Profession: Artist, Storm, Impetus, and Biography’, Cristina Garrido. The Origin of Forms. Ed. Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (2024).
· ‘El artista nace y se hace (y quizá sea Aries)’, El Cultural, Luisa Espino (2023).
· Desatados, Radio 3 (2023).
· ‘El origen de las formas’, Letra Global, El Español, Ignacio Vidal-Folch (2023).
· ‘Histeria, surrealismo y otras maquinaciones’, El periódico de España,Joaquín Jesús Sánchez (2023).
· ‘Las cartas boca arriba en el CA2M’, ABC Cultural, ABC. Javier Díaz-Guardiola (2023).
· ‘La exposición que bucea en la vida de cien artistas y por qué estos se dedicaron al arte’, El Confidencial, Abraham Rivera (2023).
Related Publications:
· Cristina Garrido. The Origin of Forms. Ed. Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (2024).
Exhibitions:
· The Origin of Forms (solo exhibition). Cur. Tania Pardo. Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Móstoles, Spain, 2023-2024).
· Quinceañera (group exhibition). Galería CURRO (Guadalajara, Mexico, 2023).
Credits:
General installation views and details of the exhibition The Origin of Forms [El origen de las formas], Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Móstoles, Spain, 2023).
Masters of Western Painting (2023) Text mural. Dimensions adjusted to fit. Design: Álex Gifreu.
Masters of Western Painting – Mark Rothko, No. 5/ No. 22 (2023) 89 x 73,5 cm. [Text: ‘He felt bitterness over his lost childhood.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Johannes Vermeer, Het straatje (2023) 70 x 50 cm. [Text: ‘He couldn't feed his large family.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Claude Gellée, Port de mer au soleil couchant (2023) 50 x 70 cm. [Text: ‘He was not the ignorant peasant of the legend.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Giotto, Fuga in Egitto (2023) 70 x 70 cm. [Text: ‘He got along well with both the nobles and the common people.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Edward Hopper, Hotel Room (2023) 57 x 61,3 cm. [Text: ‘He sold his first painting at the age of thirty-one.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Eugène Delacroix, La Liberté guidant le peuple (2023) 50 x 70 cm. [Text: ‘The state continuously sponsored his nonconformist art.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Jackson Pollock, Lucifer (2023) 50,5 x 101,5 cm. [Text: ‘The smell of turpentine came to disgust her.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Mary Cassatt, Mother and Child (2023) 90 x 70 cm. [Text: ‘She decided that marriage was incompatible with her career.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun, Madame Vigée Le Brun et sa fille (2023) 70 x 50 cm. [Text: ‘At fifteen, he already had his own studio.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Henri Matisse, La Danse (2023) 70 x 92 cm. [Text: ‘While recovering from appendicitis, his mother brought him painting supplies to the hospital.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Helen Frankenthaler, Provincetown Window (2023) 94,5 x 84 cm. [Text: ‘Poor artists envied her.’]
Images: Roberto Ruiz.
· Tania Pardo, ‘A Reflection Based on Origin and Form’, Cristina Garrido. The Origin of Forms. Ed. Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (2024).
· Joshua Decter, ‘Being Cristina Garrido’, Cristina Garrido. The Origin of Forms. Ed. Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (2024).
· Nuria Peist, ‘Profession: Artist, Storm, Impetus, and Biography’, Cristina Garrido. The Origin of Forms. Ed. Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (2024).
· ‘El artista nace y se hace (y quizá sea Aries)’, El Cultural, Luisa Espino (2023).
· Desatados, Radio 3 (2023).
· ‘El origen de las formas’, Letra Global, El Español, Ignacio Vidal-Folch (2023).
· ‘Histeria, surrealismo y otras maquinaciones’, El periódico de España,Joaquín Jesús Sánchez (2023).
· ‘Las cartas boca arriba en el CA2M’, ABC Cultural, ABC. Javier Díaz-Guardiola (2023).
· ‘La exposición que bucea en la vida de cien artistas y por qué estos se dedicaron al arte’, El Confidencial, Abraham Rivera (2023).
Related Publications:
· Cristina Garrido. The Origin of Forms. Ed. Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (2024).
Exhibitions:
· The Origin of Forms (solo exhibition). Cur. Tania Pardo. Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Móstoles, Spain, 2023-2024).
· Quinceañera (group exhibition). Galería CURRO (Guadalajara, Mexico, 2023).
Credits:
General installation views and details of the exhibition The Origin of Forms [El origen de las formas], Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Móstoles, Spain, 2023).
Masters of Western Painting (2023) Text mural. Dimensions adjusted to fit. Design: Álex Gifreu.
Masters of Western Painting – Mark Rothko, No. 5/ No. 22 (2023) 89 x 73,5 cm. [Text: ‘He felt bitterness over his lost childhood.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Johannes Vermeer, Het straatje (2023) 70 x 50 cm. [Text: ‘He couldn't feed his large family.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Claude Gellée, Port de mer au soleil couchant (2023) 50 x 70 cm. [Text: ‘He was not the ignorant peasant of the legend.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Giotto, Fuga in Egitto (2023) 70 x 70 cm. [Text: ‘He got along well with both the nobles and the common people.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Edward Hopper, Hotel Room (2023) 57 x 61,3 cm. [Text: ‘He sold his first painting at the age of thirty-one.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Eugène Delacroix, La Liberté guidant le peuple (2023) 50 x 70 cm. [Text: ‘The state continuously sponsored his nonconformist art.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Jackson Pollock, Lucifer (2023) 50,5 x 101,5 cm. [Text: ‘The smell of turpentine came to disgust her.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Mary Cassatt, Mother and Child (2023) 90 x 70 cm. [Text: ‘She decided that marriage was incompatible with her career.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun, Madame Vigée Le Brun et sa fille (2023) 70 x 50 cm. [Text: ‘At fifteen, he already had his own studio.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Henri Matisse, La Danse (2023) 70 x 92 cm. [Text: ‘While recovering from appendicitis, his mother brought him painting supplies to the hospital.’]
Masters of Western Painting – Helen Frankenthaler, Provincetown Window (2023) 94,5 x 84 cm. [Text: ‘Poor artists envied her.’]
Images: Roberto Ruiz.
