¡Deténte!
Artist name
Artist year born
1950
Artwork make date
2000
Artwork title translation
Stop There!
Artwork material
acrylic
canvas
canvas
Artwork dimensions
height: 105cm
width: 129cm
width: 129cm
Artwork type (categories)
Painting
Accession method
Donated by Diego Mazuera 2002
Accession number
5-2002
Label text
Diego Mazuera is one of few Colombian artists to consistently develop work within the tradition of abstract painting. His work is often described as a contained search for spatial and expressive possibilities, and the 2000 painting Détente! exemplifies this attitude. Within a single canvas, texture (pigment mixed with sand), gesture and imaginary architecture are deployed with combined force in an exploration and evocation of space. The space of this painting is unclear and disquieting, as if it is dreamt, or the foggy evocation a remote past; figurative images (of a boat and a mummy) appear suspended between imagination and actuality. This work incorporates two aspects seen within Mazuera's previous work. His paintings from the eighties incorporated pictograms, from indigenous cultures of Colombia, by transforming them into abstract gestures. Mazuera went on to produce a series of canvases representing imagined or dreamt cityscapes, with references to familiar places in Colombia, works which are often placed in relation to the metaphysical tradition.
Maria Clara Bernal
Maria Clara Bernal
Last updated date
2008