CARAL: ATMOSFERAS Y GEOMETRIAS “Ritual Solar”

Ritual Solar. 2010. Oil on canvas. 100x150cm.

Jorge Arce is a Peruvian artist and musician with a passion for Abstract Expressionism and Music. His latest artistic work called “CARAL”, name that was given by the artist who was inspired by an ancient Peruvian place with the same name; with more than 5.000 years old the artist found inspiration among big spaces and geometrical ancient structures of this place, to give the viewer a complete view of abstraction that exposes the viewer´s imagination to be in front of big paintings with strong and vivid colors accompanied with geometrical figures.

“Ritual Solar”, oil on canvas painting that the artist categorized as part of his “Geometrias” category, gives the viewer a complete view of an entire yellow painting with a strong Black color with circular shape in the middle of the painting, the artist also use some of the primary colors of Art. As the tittle says “Ritual Solar” referring to a normal activity that tribes or ancient cultures usually did to the Sun long time ago. Since the artist was inspired by “CARAL” an ancient site of Peru, the viewer can directly know that the artist is referring to how important the Sun was for the unknown tribe that used to live in this site called “CARAL”.

 The prominent Yellow color that is surrounding the Black circle could be seen by the viewer as the Sun itself that has emitted all of its brightness through the canvas and since the Sun has emitted all of its brightness, it ended up becoming a perfectly Black circle that is slowly spreading the darkness of what it has become. At the bottom of the painting the artist has created a type of effect that could it be seen as if the Black circle is entering or coming out from the prominent Yellow color.  Arce refers to the Sun, the White and Black color in real life when it is about a solar activity such as an eclipse, these colors (black and white) are the first thing that people see, the artist might tried to refer to a solar eclipse too, because long ago some, not all ancient cultures use to perform a type of “Ritual” when a solar eclipse was about to happen. 

 The Black color in Art represents power, sexuality, sophistication, elegance, mystery, evil and sadness, but due to the artist's place of inspiration is 5.000 years old, the meaning of the color black could simply be viewed as a “Mystery” to what happened to this ancient Peruvian site and its people. This is for the artist, to hold the greatest importance and beauty; many mysteries remain of how exactly they lived, how their rituals were and what was the Sun for them and its importance, facts remain intriguing for the artist. 

What purpose or message does Arce want the viewer to receive when seeing his painting, most likely the awe and mystery he himself feels for his birthplace, his cultural identity.  Arce is successful in his transmission of harmony, peace and relaxation through his complex color field paintings. 

“Ritual Solar” has also geometrical figures and lines. One geometrical figure can be seen in the middle along with the perfect geometrical shape of the Black circle; it seems to be another circle inside the Black circle, but this time its lines are thin and with a lighter color that it could be White, the artist may have used White in order to contrast the figure and lines for the viewer to have a clear sight that not only color is the passion of this artist but also the perfection of lines that can be seen in a geometric figure. 

The artist, as a musician, he might have found inspiration on music while drawing his geometric lines and the prominent Black circle we see on the middle of the canvas. Music has inspired many artists that have painted a lot of famous paintings that have been pure abstraction, such as the famous painter Wassily Kandinskv who associated his colors with musical notes, and how music sounds, the flow of the rhythm, all of these can inspire an artist to try to paint music´s physical form or by trying, and then show it to the viewer, it is why the lines on this canvas are not straight lines but they take different directions and forms, some lines on the canvas mix together to form the geometric shape that is on the middle along with the Black circle, that it could be the half of a Square or an Octagon.

The pass of the brush stroke through all the canvas does look like it has had a type of rhythm at the time that it was being painted by the artist. Jorge Arce whose purpose on his collection of Art is to give the viewer a free view and thought about this Peruvian place is seen through all of his paintings, how he was inspired by his passions, music, art and the geometry of this place. Aspects that can be seen in his painting “Ritual Solar”.

- Julio Lama,  December 12, 2013

References

McNee, Lory. "The Color 'Yellow': The Hidden Meaning for Your Art & Design." Fine Art Tips With Lori McNee. Lori McNee, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://www.finearttips.com/2010/07/the-color-yellow-the-hidden-meaning-for-your-art-design/>.

McNee, Lory. "The Color 'Blue': Use the Hidden Meaning for Art & Design." Fine Art Tips With Lori McNee. Lori McNee, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. <http://www.finearttips.com/2010/08/the-color-blue-use-the-hidden-meaning-for-art-design/>.

"Color Symbolism and Culture." Symbolism of Color: Using Color for Meaning. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. <http://www.incredibleart.org/lessons/middle/color2.htm>.

Books

Kleiner, Fred .Gardner´s Art through the Ages.  New York: Cengage Learning, January 2012.