REVIEW: "Painting Borges: Art Interpreting Literature"

May 29, 2012

10:08 p.m.

By merging fiction, painting, philosophy and storytelling, the exhibition “Painting Borges: Art Interpreting Literature” captures the viewer's imagination on several levels. Latino Arts, Inc. brings the traveling exhibition to Milwaukee courtesy of the University of Buffalo, New York to present these visual and visceral expressions to Jorge Luis Borges's puzzling short stories. Borges's literary legacy stretches through the 20th century, which then placed Latin American writers in the public mainstream. By straddling philosophy and literature in his fiction, Borges's complex writing often inspires abstract, narrative or surreal images from the artists participating in the exhibition. Latino Arts, Inc. graciously provided brief summaries of Borges's stories alongside several of the more than 30 images from approximately 15 artists so the viewer might reference the artworks' context, giving further understanding to Borges and then the individual picture. <o:p /> The exhibition's beginning print features the writer's portrait by Estele Pereda (b. 1931) titled Borges y El Laberinto (Borges and the Labyrinth). The small image obscures one side of the author's face with striated marks, masking and melting his features. A curiously appropriate depiction because Borges's works often mask the meaning to the human condition, requiring the reader to connect with their very personal reflections on his short stories and the painting.  Argentinean artist Pereda uses various media to create her indefinable style of art that has been admired worldwide. Two more pieces in the exhibition depict the same image, a nude woman, prostrate and still on a stiff table from an unusual viewpoint. Pereda envisions the subject as a small drawing and the other in a large oil painting that incorporates text and Perada's passion for invoking the place of women in society. Each piece then titled If You Want Her, Use Her.<o:p> </o:p> Another prominent Cuban artist Carlos Estévez (b. 1969) displays four pieces in the exhibition. As a winner of the acclaimed Gran Premio Primer Salón de Arte Cubano Contemporáreo award, Estévez works with acrylics, installation, oil and sculpture and may add found objects to his work. Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci inspire his mechanically realized figures that reference architectural and industrial iconography with meticulous, precise draftsmanship. In one titled Il Inmortal (The Immortal), Estėvez combines tempura and pencil on sepia colored amate paper to depict a mechanical man drawn in fine, thin lines. Another painting, Le Jardines Que Se Befurár (Forking Gardens), balances an ebony background with gold buildings that decorate the painting's top border similar to a frieze. A skeletal man waits below to visually interpret Borges' story “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Presenting these conceptual and visual dilemmas through the lens of internationally known Latino artists tantalizes the viewer's eyes and mind simultaneously. While the art work stands on its own merit, it also draws the viewer in by placing these literary interpretations within another framework to deepen each image\'s meaning together with the exhibition. Never merely a display of illustrations, “Painting Borges” explores that rare perspective that connects art, divinity, literature and philosophy to life. The intriguing melding of disciplines enriches two cultures to expand the viewer's aesthetic horizon into a multi colored, ethnic and layered experience. <o:p> </o:p> Latino Arts, Inc. presents “Painting Borges: Art Interpreting Literature” at the United Community Center through July 15. For more information contact: www.latinoartsinc.org or 414.384.3100<o:p /> <o:p> </o:p>

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