Friday, April 26, 7pm
Bellas Artes, Hernández Macías 75
Free

Kijano - "Allegory of death and other subtleties of life"

Landscapes Abstracted - Richard Trumbull

by Hope Palmer

As we step into the natural world a set of expectations begins to take shape. The sky, trees, rollings fields, plants both known and a bit mysterious begin to impinge on our consciousness. Richard Trumbull's paintings visually assault the viewer in the most magnetic of ways. At once familiar because of tonal values and shapes we only secondarily become aware of something richer and deeper. In this new body of work the represented landscape begins to break down. He is less and less interested in local representation and more interested in abstraction to express the essence of the experience. He paints in a suggestive rather than a descriptive mode. We are the ones who complete the image. Purely figurative landscapes rely on a specific sense of place but here blasts of color worked quickly wet into wet provide visual brilliance and a quickening of the senses. The texture of the paint is something that must be viscerally felt. Layer upon layer slowly reveals counter secrets not easily grasped upon a single viewing. A private dialogue ensues which gives an intimacy to a very solitary viewing. The paintings don't rely on local color but they have a spectral light all their own. These are the kind of paintings that don't release everything upon a first visitation but insist upon active participation from the viewer. The luxuriant color, not often found in conventional representation lingers long after our encounter. The deftness of the strokes and a willingness to play as Trumbull makes use of each corner of his canvases is truly refreshing.

This group of paintings redefines a world sorely in need of excoriating cliches. As a group, this new journey taken over somewhat familiar territory only leaves us wanting more of his painterly poetry. The viewer only has recently joined a new society where imagination and daring are the bywords of the day and each jewel of a painting resides in memory long after the lights are turned down low.

“Between realism and the abstract is an opportunity to make the invisible visible.”

Opening of the exhibition “Landscapes Abstracted” featuring new work by Richard Trumbull is April 26, 2019 at 7PM at Bellas Artes, Centro Cultural Ignacio Ramirez "El Nigromante".

The exhibition will run from April 26, 2019 to June 30, 2019

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