Alberto Jorge Carol

For an artist living in an industrial society with a predominantly urban culture, and working within an art establishment to a great extent absorbed by its rituals of radical chic, is it anachronistic to convey in his or her paintings an intimate relationship with nature? Absolutely not. Nature is very much out there with its mysteries, its wonders, its overwhelming forces and its suggestive powers. We haven’t been able to destroy it yet. On the other hand, the technological advances produced by that very industrial society provide not only better materials and tools for the artists. They also feed us with prodigious information about nature, including a myriad of unprecedented images of stunning quality that can be pivotal in the creative processes. Moreover, slowly but steadily, a new consciousness is gaining ground which recognizes that humankind and civilization, in order to survive, must achieve a sustainable interaction with our natural environment. Thus, the Romantic ideal of harmony between nature and the spirit ends up being surprisingly sound and very much in keeping with crucial needs of our time. Therefore for the artist genuinely drawn to nature as a subject matter there is a growing audience to be addressed and a mission to be accomplished provided that s/he takes on the task with creativity. This is the mindset the Portraits of Nature series is stemming from.

As the title suggests, in the series there is a certain transgression of boundaries between pictorial genres. Normally, the genre of the portrait is associated with persons, not with trees, a flower or a wave. In the Portraits of Nature the frequent use of close-ups and synecdoche, the careful attention to detail, the lively execution and sometimes an utter decontextualization are elements akin to the intimacy with the subject so essential to portraiture. This kind of approach undoubtedly harks back to Albrecht Dürer’s “Great Turf,” and to Georgia O’Keefe’s oversized flowers as well as to the work of photographers such as Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston. I feel very comfortable inserting myself within these traditions which are currently being carried forward by noted artists in the United States and in Europe.

My paintings are based on photographs usually shot by myself. I strive to render an accurate depiction of the object, but the deeper I go into it, the deeper I reach into myself. The more I try to capture the object, the more it boosts my feelings and imagination. Therefore, I do not copy, I transform. This is strikingly evident in the use of color whose arbitrariness creates a sharp contrast with the realist form. In the Portraits of Nature reality remains recognizable yet enriched by intensely subjective representations. The paintings in this series offer a collection of images that stand out for their unique visual poetry. No apologies.