An Evening with Enrique Martínez Celaya Including a Conversation with Martin Brest
November 2, 2023, at 7 p.m.
Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108
Fantastic event at USC
Video of Enrique working
This video lasts 38 minutes. It shows Enrique painting over sections of his painted canvas. It was not shown at the USC event.
Before the presentation at USC they showed a video of Enrique working on his painting, The Cabin. It was a time lapse video. He started with a large cabin that became progressively smaller due to over painting. It became a small cabin with one lighted window. The window became progressively smaller and dimmer until is vanished almost completely along with the cabin itself. [Sorry, I cannot find either the video, or the final image.] Please refer to the video below where the cabin reappears as part of a portrait of his son.
During his lecture, he showed a video of the apple Tree (2023). On a canvas with the bare branches, highlighted in bright red, of the apple tree, he painted in a variety of bright colorful single flowers. He added a white boy figure and then overprinted the flowers which all but disappeared.
During the entire time of Enrique's talk and his conversation with Martin Brest Enrique's works were projected on a screen. The series of images were an engaging counterpoint to the talk. One media type complemented the other.
The apple tree(2023)
The overprinting and the single lonely, often white, figures captured my interest. Any painting you see includes other images that are hidden, but integral to the artist's process.
The Miles McEnery Gallery site shows Enrique's works in the show The Foreigner's Song.
https://milesmcenery.viewingrooms.com/viewing-room/126-enrique-martinez-celaya-the-foreigner-s-song/
Other works:
The traveler's dream
The music (age)
The loveless and the loved
Boy raising his arm
The eternal stain
The child's song
also: a video of Enrique working on The child's song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8WkyhMvO1k
Please see other videos on this site.
Enrique explains his idea of portraiture in a video, Self and Sea.
Enrique paints one portrait of his son holding a snow globe containing a cabin. This cabin was the subject of a work-in-progress video shown before the USC lecture. His son, now 18, was at the lecture. Enrique said that his relation to his art is similar to his relation to his son. When his son was a year old he might be able to understand what was in his head, but now that his son is 18 it is impossible to know. It's the same with his works. He stands outside them and cannot completely understand what they mean.
Enrique explains his approach to art to Claremont Graduate University students. This video give an idea of his presentation at USC.
During the Q and A Enrique said that he approaches art as an experiment. In the process of producing the art if some element emerges that is contrary to the experiment then it is removed.
The beginning and the end
The angel of wait
The ice bound carriage
The intolerable shirt of flame
The Mystic
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