Arturo Herrera at Sikkema Jenkins

(My thoughts on the Herrera exhibition from two years ago)

“The 40 mixed media collages on paper in this exhibition by Arturo Herrera are all the same size, 98 ½ x 48 ½ inches. So one becomes attuned to slight variations in the patterns that are repeated throughout the exhibition. Although we are told that the source of these nonobjective collages are two illustrations of an old dwarf and a young boy playing an accordion, there are few legible traces of the source material found in the final products, with the exception of “#6BF4” (2006) and “#29 BF3” (2006), where the image of the young boy’s face and his accordion can be discerned. The surfaces of these collage paintings are busy. Mr. Herrera explores wallpaper or op-art patterns, creates opaque linear tangles, and his color combinations are boisterous and somewhat random.

He uses representational forms only to obliterate them with intuitive layering, and this lends the work a subliminal quality. There is constant movement between foreground and background and articulation is sacrificed in the name of movement and a ponderous incoherence. The layers of lines intimate specific things but nothing ever coheres and we are left with busyness; visual activity that can be seen as a symbol of fields of energy or as a perfect wall hanging for an upper middle class dwelling. They are non-political, uncontroversial, but not simply pretty. These over-qualified surfaces tend more towards the ugly than the floral.

Mr. Herrera has limited himself to a particular formula and it has produced varied results. But the variety lies almost entirely in the area of color choice. There is the predominantly red ones and the predominantly green ones, etc. One finds oneself saying, “Oh look there is a blue one, and a yellow one, and a…” Since the linear activity is almost the same in every work, minor variations noted, one wonders why the artist chose to vary the color schemes. Certainly it does not affect the emotional impact of the individual works. It is hard not to think that he is trying to match as many individual works to as many interior decoration schemes as possible. The central formal thread connecting these painting collages is the contrast between repeating patterns and painterly mark making. In these works, one busy layer often cancels out another busy layer, and surfaces become fragmented, kaleidoscopic, pretty messes. Color is applied to the stencils and grounds in different ways, there are sprays, drips, and splotches of color, and each new manner of application generates different kinds of pictorial space. But since the works all have a similar intent and execution they tend to run together and the experience as a whole loses all meaning quickly.”

(My thoughts on the Herrera exhibition from two years ago)

“The 40 mixed media collages on paper in this exhibition by Arturo Herrera are all the same size, 98 ½ x 48 ½ inches. So one becomes attuned to slight variations in the patterns that are repeated throughout the exhibition. Although we are told that the source of these nonobjective collages are two illustrations of an old dwarf and a young boy playing an accordion, there are few legible traces of the source material found in the final products, with the exception of “#6BF4” (2006) and “#29 BF3” (2006), where the image of the young boy’s face and his accordion can be discerned. The surfaces of these collage paintings are busy. Mr. Herrera explores wallpaper or op-art patterns, creates opaque linear tangles, and his color combinations are boisterous and somewhat random.

He uses representational forms only to obliterate them with intuitive layering, and this lends the work a subliminal quality. There is constant movement between foreground and background and articulation is sacrificed in the name of movement and a ponderous incoherence. The layers of lines intimate specific things but nothing ever coheres and we are left with busyness; visual activity that can be seen as a symbol of fields of energy or as a perfect wall hanging for an upper middle class dwelling. They are non-political, uncontroversial, but not simply pretty. These over-qualified surfaces tend more towards the ugly than the floral.

Mr. Herrera has limited himself to a particular formula and it has produced varied results. But the variety lies almost entirely in the area of color choice. There is the predominantly red ones and the predominantly green ones, etc. One finds oneself saying, “Oh look there is a blue one, and a yellow one, and a…” Since the linear activity is almost the same in every work, minor variations noted, one wonders why the artist chose to vary the color schemes. Certainly it does not affect the emotional impact of the individual works. It is hard not to think that he is trying to match as many individual works to as many interior decoration schemes as possible. The central formal thread connecting these painting collages is the contrast between repeating patterns and painterly mark making. In these works, one busy layer often cancels out another busy layer, and surfaces become fragmented, kaleidoscopic, pretty messes. Color is applied to the stencils and grounds in different ways, there are sprays, drips, and splotches of color, and each new manner of application generates different kinds of pictorial space. But since the works all have a similar intent and execution they tend to run together and the experience as a whole loses all meaning quickly.”

(My thoughts on the Herrera exhibition from two years ago)

“The 40 mixed media collages on paper in this exhibition by Arturo Herrera are all the same size, 98 ½ x 48 ½ inches. So one becomes attuned to slight variations in the patterns that are repeated throughout the exhibition. Although we are told that the source of these nonobjective collages are two illustrations of an old dwarf and a young boy playing an accordion, there are few legible traces of the source material found in the final products, with the exception of “#6BF4” (2006) and “#29 BF3” (2006), where the image of the young boy’s face and his accordion can be discerned. The surfaces of these collage paintings are busy. Mr. Herrera explores wallpaper or op-art patterns, creates opaque linear tangles, and his color combinations are boisterous and somewhat random.

He uses representational forms only to obliterate them with intuitive layering, and this lends the work a subliminal quality. There is constant movement between foreground and background and articulation is sacrificed in the name of movement and a ponderous incoherence. The layers of lines intimate specific things but nothing ever coheres and we are left with busyness; visual activity that can be seen as a symbol of fields of energy or as a perfect wall hanging for an upper middle class dwelling. They are non-political, uncontroversial, but not simply pretty. These over-qualified surfaces tend more towards the ugly than the floral.

Mr. Herrera has limited himself to a particular formula and it has produced varied results. But the variety lies almost entirely in the area of color choice. There is the predominantly red ones and the predominantly green ones, etc. One finds oneself saying, “Oh look there is a blue one, and a yellow one, and a…” Since the linear activity is almost the same in every work, minor variations noted, one wonders why the artist chose to vary the color schemes. Certainly it does not affect the emotional impact of the individual works. It is hard not to think that he is trying to match as many individual works to as many interior decoration schemes as possible. The central formal thread connecting these painting collages is the contrast between repeating patterns and painterly mark making. In these works, one busy layer often cancels out another busy layer, and surfaces become fragmented, kaleidoscopic, pretty messes. Color is applied to the stencils and grounds in different ways, there are sprays, drips, and splotches of color, and each new manner of application generates different kinds of pictorial space. But since the works all have a similar intent and execution they tend to run together and the experience as a whole loses all meaning quickly.”