Hugo Crosthwaite Exhibits His Figurative Drawings
March 24, 2005
Carlos M. Luis, Courtesy of El Hispano
(Miami - EFE) The exhibition "Maniera Obscura/In a Dark Manner: 1998-2005", a combination of drawing and figurative art, representing the most important show of Mexican Hugo Crosthwaite in the United States.
Without formal education in painting, Crosthwaite, who began to draw when he was a child, has always been motivated by details, "in the drawings I began seeing figurative works, and I saw a detail that I wanted to capture."
"The way I work is from detail to detail and certainly in an improvised manner. I begin with an eye, then go to the next, soon the nose and the mouth and then I go on." The painter assured EFE.
"I don't have the slightest idea of what the picture is going to become, how it will be finished or what it will be title. At the end, it is the making of the face that dictates what the drawing will be," he added.
The favored material for the artist is graphite and charcoal, what he loves is "the immediacy and the tactile quality of drawing, the breaking of the white surface with image from my own personal narrative."
"It is the only material that I learned to use. I was born in Tijuana and grew up without knowing about art nor about painters, the concept of art did not cross my mind, and drawing was done with pencil, in my school notebook, that was the how I began and I developed that through my life," he added. One of the most impressive paintings of the exhibition, done in pencil and charcoal, entitled "Tablas de una Novena" measuring 10.9 meters by 2.4 meters, is part of the show at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries, in Coral Gables, Florida.
"It is a work inspired by [Dante's] Divine Comedy, the religious concept of purgatory and hell and the idea of redemption: souls that have to pass through a process of redemption and tribulation to redeem themselves", explains the artist about a piece that he worked on for a year.
The artist's works were included in the "XII Bienal Rufino Tamayo" at the Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City and in "Mujeres de Juarez: Art Against Crime" in Las Vegas.
This year, after his exhibition in Florida, which will remain open to the public until May 30, Crosthwaite will participate in a collective exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, California. "Maniera Obscura/In A Dark Manner: 1998-2005" presents works like "Rejoneador Polidextro", "Bartolomé", "Guerra No. 8 (Farewell Kiss)", "Virgen Morena", "Beso Fingido" and "Contorsionista", in which the artist shows his stylistic skill, combining mythological, historical and abstract elements.
March 24, 2005
Carlos M. Luis, Courtesy of El Hispano
(Miami - EFE) The exhibition "Maniera Obscura/In a Dark Manner: 1998-2005", a combination of drawing and figurative art, representing the most important show of Mexican Hugo Crosthwaite in the United States.
Without formal education in painting, Crosthwaite, who began to draw when he was a child, has always been motivated by details, "in the drawings I began seeing figurative works, and I saw a detail that I wanted to capture."
"The way I work is from detail to detail and certainly in an improvised manner. I begin with an eye, then go to the next, soon the nose and the mouth and then I go on." The painter assured EFE.
"I don't have the slightest idea of what the picture is going to become, how it will be finished or what it will be title. At the end, it is the making of the face that dictates what the drawing will be," he added.
The favored material for the artist is graphite and charcoal, what he loves is "the immediacy and the tactile quality of drawing, the breaking of the white surface with image from my own personal narrative."
"It is the only material that I learned to use. I was born in Tijuana and grew up without knowing about art nor about painters, the concept of art did not cross my mind, and drawing was done with pencil, in my school notebook, that was the how I began and I developed that through my life," he added. One of the most impressive paintings of the exhibition, done in pencil and charcoal, entitled "Tablas de una Novena" measuring 10.9 meters by 2.4 meters, is part of the show at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries, in Coral Gables, Florida.
"It is a work inspired by [Dante's] Divine Comedy, the religious concept of purgatory and hell and the idea of redemption: souls that have to pass through a process of redemption and tribulation to redeem themselves", explains the artist about a piece that he worked on for a year.
The artist's works were included in the "XII Bienal Rufino Tamayo" at the Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City and in "Mujeres de Juarez: Art Against Crime" in Las Vegas.
This year, after his exhibition in Florida, which will remain open to the public until May 30, Crosthwaite will participate in a collective exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, California. "Maniera Obscura/In A Dark Manner: 1998-2005" presents works like "Rejoneador Polidextro", "Bartolomé", "Guerra No. 8 (Farewell Kiss)", "Virgen Morena", "Beso Fingido" and "Contorsionista", in which the artist shows his stylistic skill, combining mythological, historical and abstract elements.