Magic realism
The most famous artist of magic realism I know is Antonio Lopez. His works gave me a huge shock and inspiration. He depicts reality, but this reality conveys a mystery and special feeling to the audience.
Speaking of Antonio Lopez, I have to mention a film called el sol de menbrillos (As shown in Figure 2), also known as Dream of Light, a 1992 movie by Spanish director Victor Erice, which won the jury award in Cannes that year. The film tells the process of creating a new work by a painter-Antonio Lopez. The subject of his painting is a fruit-bearing Wimble tree(As shown in Figure 1).
Figure 1, Victor Erice, el sol de menbrillos, 1992
stills
Figure 2, Antonio Lopez, Quince, 1992
oil on canvas
This film shows a creative process. It includes the interaction between an artist and the environment, this environment includes not only the Wimble Tree, but also his family, visiting friends, natural wind and rain, and the sudden barking of dogs while he is painting. These are all harmonious. The only harsh thing is the war news on the radio, which is incompatible with the atmosphere presented in this backyard, and it seems remote. The painter always wanted to capture the sunshine on the Wimble tree and fruits, but in the end he failed, so he had to change to a sketch. He said that life is always like this and you have to give up something. This is what inspired me about his philosophy of art creation, that is, we need to abandon some things in life, so I think do painting is the same. A painting does not have to reproduce everything completely, give up some secondary things, and paint the important things, so that the visual impact of the picture may be stronger. Then the place you don’t paint in the picture will leave room for imagination for the audience. In Chinese painting, there is a very important concept of painting is 'leaving blank space'(As shown in Figure 3). I think in my painting I will make use of this similar concept of painting, which has an oriental cultural flavour.
Figure 3, Sun, 1606, Rain, Mountains-and-Waters Painting,
This film gave me a kind of philosophical thinking, that is, the relationship between time and painting. The painter was portraying the same image through autumn, winter and spring. Time is frozen in the picture. The brushstrokes are mottled with age. The visual experience he has accumulated on the canvas gives the painting a sense of mystery that is true and indifferent and at the same time inaccessible. In this noisy and chaotic society, such lonely and quiet works give audiences have a different visual experience. In these shots, you will see the "time left on the film" by the director. A tree, a person, a painting, the whole film is to illustrate this relationship. They are interdependent, but they have their own lives, but in this film, they are combined.
Figure 4，Antonio Lopez，The Table，1980
oil on canvas
Figure 5, Antonio Lopez，Atocha，1964
oil on canvas
Antonio Lopez believes that what he sees can be caught, and the more accurately he catches it, the more likely it is to express the intangible reality of the mystery that is not clearly understood. He likes to use the "unfinished style" to make the screen shake and time travel. The calm and subtle family atmosphere full of pictures and the mottled production effect, as a typical feature of Lopez’s artistic language, shows his mastery of materials and his deep attachment to subjects such as family affection and urban landscapes (As shown in Figure 4，5).
Figure 5, Antonio Lopez, Conejo Deshollado，1972 Plate Tempera
The overall "blandness" and softness of the painting seeks an implied impulse or out-of-the-ordinary, using colour to sublimate the everyday environment around him, giving it a strong sense of presence, yet transcending the limits of the specific scene and entering the heart.( (As shown in Figure 5，6)As a painter who always creates with realistic language, Lopez's creative journey considers the meaning and possibility of realistic language in the contemporary context from a new perspective. These possibilities include technical, conceptual, experimental, traditional and modern symbols, etc...
To this day, Lopez can often be seen sketching on the streets of Madrid at the age of almost 90, and perhaps it is not only his work that moves us, but also his devotion to painting.
Figure 5, Antonio Lopez, Woman in the bathtub, 1968
oil on canvas
Antonio Lopez, 'Maria', 1972,
27.5 x 20.75 inches，pencil on paper
Reference:
Dream of Light (1992) Directed by Victor Erice [Feature film]. Spainn
Lopez-Garcia, A. (1992) Quince [Oil on Canvas]. Fundación Focus-Abengoa, Seville
Sun, K. (1606) Rain, Mountains-and-Waters Painting [Water-ink painting on paper]. Guangdong Provincial Museum Collection, Guangzhou city.
Lopez-Garcia, A. (1980) The table [Oil on Canvas]. Available at: http://www.chinashj.com/ysj-pl/9114.html
Lopez-Garcia, A. (1964) Atocha [Oil on Canvas]. Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Lopez-Garcia, A. (1972) Skinned Rabbit [Plate Tempera]. Private Collection
Lopez-Garcia, A. (1968) Woman in the bathtub [Oil on Canvas]. Masataka Tomita Collection
Lopez-Garcia, A. (1972) 'Maria' [Pencil on Paper]. Maria Lopez Collection