“On December 4, 1908, Henri Rousseau wrote a letter to the poet Guillaume Apollinaire regarding the portrait of Marie Laurencin and Apollinaire that he was painting. In it, he says: ‘Don’t forget the flowers for the poet’s carnation.’ Rousseau had intended to paint some carnations in the foreground of the portrait, but by mistake, he ended up painting a series of wallflowers instead.
The reason for Rousseau’s confusion could well be his unfamiliarity with the carnation flower, combined with his impatient desire to start painting a picture in which he had high hopes, leading him to not verify the type of flowers he had taken as his models for representation. In April 1909, Rousseau painted a second version of the painting to correct the issue of the wallflowers and try to overcome criticism of the first version for its lack of resemblance to the subjects. The reasons for Rousseau’s error in representing the flowers are speculative, a fantasy constructed from a fact. This anecdote and my unverified hypothesis about the reasons behind it bring to mind the first time I saw Rousseau’s paintings in person. I was familiar with his painting through reproductions in art books, but my experience in front of his paintings exceeded any expectations. The exuberance of colors and forms captivated me so much that any of the many anomalies in proportions and resemblance to the images serving as models went unnoticed.
My interest in the French painter focuses on the idea of experiencing the real through his representations and then transforming it into a pictorial event. My approach to landscape is not based on scientific rigor but on nature as an image, and how this image, when translated into the pictorial medium, reveals its own issues. Both the paintings in the exhibition and the videos presented share an interest in the fragmentary and the multiplicity of focal points. These are paintings filled with interferences that do not allow for an easy reception of what is displayed.
The works presented use fragments of art history and visual documentation on the history of taxidermy and the construction of dioramas for natural history museums as models. Outdoor spaces are constructed indoors, the video image of the real serves as a support for the static image of representation, firsthand experience of an overwhelming and sublime nature by painters like William Turner is replaced by printer paper and fluorescent lights, and the idea of representing landscape in childhood functions as a sincere horizon in a sea of fictions. Nothing is evident; everything is subject to doubt. Representation is the model, and the real experience, whatever it may be, is the end.”
Nacho Martín Silva, septiembre de 2024