Raimundo Figueroa, Puerto Rican Modernist Master Figueroa Mixed Media Painting Music Notes Collage, 2002

Description

Oil pastels, acrylic, wax pencil, graphite, watercolor and collage elements on paper
framed to 39.5 X 31.5. sheet measures 30 … more Oil pastels, acrylic, wax pencil, graphite, watercolor and collage elements on paper
framed to 39.5 X 31.5. sheet measures 30 X 22 inches. (no glass)

Raimundo Figueroa (American, b. 1957) is best known for his Minimalist abstract paintings and works on paper that celebrate beauty and revel in the joy of life. Incorporating figuration and abstraction, the variety present in the artist's body of work reflects the many paths toward beauty and spiritual awareness. Painter and musician. His formal academic education was in music which combined with his career in the Visual Arts. He stands out as an abstract painter. His work shows an idiom of forms that are related to the stylistic vocabulary of abstract expressionism and minimal art. Figueroa has maintained a studio in Puerto Rico since the 1980s, though his itinerant lifestyle has given him opportunities to work for extended periods in the United States, Europe, particularly the Netherlands, and St. Barthelemy. Each domicile has inspired a new series of paintings and collages. The constant throughout is his pursuit of painting as a spiritual discipline, and celebration of the beauty that life has to offer. Often incorporating hand-written notes, they are Cy Twombly-esque in calligraphic line. Twombly’s commentary on his own work — “It does not illustrate. It is the sensation of its own realization.” — applies to Figueroa’s work as well. His principle connection with Abstract Expressionists such as Twombly or Willem de Kooning’s late phase is in his freedom of execution and skillful use of color. The incorporation of figurative imagery belies the truth that the primary subject is painting itself. Incorporating Taoist or Zen Buddhist associations, as if they are visual koans. The grand scale and incorporation of drips allude to Abstract Expressionist masters such as Franz Kline and perhaps Philip Guston’s shapes. Yet the thin layers of paint visible beneath the gestural line reveal that these paintings are not just about action, but also about deliberation. “Vital Forces” includes a series of untitled drawings made with coffee and black ink on paper. Like Color Field paintings on unprimed canvas, the medium allows the line to bleed into the paper, revealing the ghost of the forms, and emphasizing the element of time introduced by the process. These are among Figueroa’s simplest and most commanding works. Figueroa’s mixed media collages provide a more light-hearted counterpoint to his large-scale paintings. He first began producing collages and montages in 1973. Easily transported, he has created large numbers of works on paper while traveling and residing in Amsterdam and St. Barths. Perhaps harkening back to his early training as a classical violinist, the collages have a diaristic feeling, as if reflective of a daily habit of practicing his craft of drawing and composing. The imagery draws on influences as far flung as African masks, sheet music, photographs and many varieties of flowers. The collages exhibit the greatest sense of freedom of imagery and brilliant color. Each one a masterfully composed snapshot into his imagination and daily life. (from an article by Laura Roulet)

Galerie Almine Rech, Art Basel, Miami Beach, FL
Obra Galería Alegría (Sex Sells), San Juan PR
Zona Maco (México Art Fair), México
Scope (Reality Check) Florida
Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (Muestra de Arte Nacional), San Juan PR –
Photo Miami
Ken Nahan Jr. Fine Art, NY
Biennale de Florencia, Italy
Galerie Van Der Straeten, Amsterdam
Museo de la Ciudad de Madrid, Spain
Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, NY
Luigi Marrozzini Gallery, (Pequeño Formato), San Juan PR
Virginia Miller Galleries, Coral Gables, Miami FL
Botello Gallery, San Juan PR
Park Gallery (Domingo López/Luis Hernández Cruz/Julio Rosado del Valle)
Botello Gallery, Rufino Tamayo, Antoni Tapies, Joan Miro, Angel Botello, José Luis Cuevas
V Bienal Iberoamericana de Arte, México City
Young Latin American Artists, Naul Ojeda, Letelier, Ghiglino, Washington DC –
Arthur Charles Gallery, Peter Max, Max Papart Washington, DC


Select Collections

Bacardí Corporation, Cataño, Puerto Rico
Baltimore Opera House, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Banco Santander de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
City Bank, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Forbes Collection, New York, United States
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico
Museo de Arte Moderno, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico
Royal Bank of Canada
American Express, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, United States
Sutton Gallery, New York, United States
Zucker Gallery, New York, United States
Banco Central y Economía
Economou Collection
Equitable Corp.
Merrill Lynch
Olivetti Corp.
Prudential Securities
UBS
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