Until he began to paint smoke, Juan Alonso concentrated on comical version of floral overkill. Smoke saved him. His blackened tendrils in ink and pencil that hover on the edge of dissolution are tributes to his family’s decorative ironwork business in old Cuba. (Profile here.)
Alfredo Arreguin is a pattern painter with a cubist base and a devotion to the high-romance of Mexican art history. I ran out of gas for his work about 20 years ago, stopped by static excess and a design that’s illustrative instead of visual.
An image of a new painting I saw online could be poised to break out of that box. It appears to be inspired at least in part by the kind of South American ironwork that is a fertile source for Alonso.
Will you leave Alfredo alone? I don’t know why he is a famous and honored painter around the world, but critics who live where he does, in Seattle, look down on him. Oh wait, I do know. It’s because he’s successful and they’re not.
What are you talking about? I love Juan Alonso’s flowers.
I agree with Monica. It would be nice if you actually interviewed the artists whose work you discuss so blithely so that you may hear from them what their influences are, but they probably won’t talk to you.
I don’t blame them. Both artists produce visually stunning work that sells.
I just saw the new Arreguin show at Linda Hodges, and he had some new paintings with a more somber, experimental palette, and some new textural effects with natural colors that I hadn’t seen before.
If you’re going to act as critic, Regina, try to at least interview someone who appreciates the artists’ work if you can’t bring yourself to be objective or to say anything positive.
I took classes from Jacob Lawrence at the UW, and he never needed to point things out in a negative way- he always had something positive to say, and directed students by pointing out how things might be MORE successful- and he was well respected for his approach.
As a “journalist”, try to be more balanced.