Bodegon #1

Juan Manuel Gomez-Quiroz

Gomez-Quiroz achieves a lithographic quality in this large soft-ground abstraction of a still life with potted plants, and he’s created an undulating texture that runs across the entire matrix, making it seem as though we are viewing the objects through a linen drape on whose surface is cast the shadows of the leaves.

In the late 1970s Gomez-Quiroz created several series of “Bodegon” etchings, color lithographs, and oil paintings, featuring similar still lifes and illustrating his exploration of overlaid patterns on abstracted objects. Occasionally, as with “Bodegon #1,” the effect is like water or dancing shadows; in others, it is like a woven tapestry. Either way, his style perfects the idea of seeing one object through the lens of another, always suggesting without ever leading.