Thinking about my work in relation to Baroque and Rococo
Baroque and Rococo
Baroque and Rococo are particularly relevant for my work as
aesthetic references from as early as I can remember.
I grew up in Minas Gerais (means “Gereral Mines”), a Brazilian
state roughly the size of France, whose very name indicates its colonial
origins as one of the largest gold mining centers of Latin America.
Portuguese explorers arrived in Brazil in 1500 looking for mineral riches similar to those plundered by the
Spaniards in their colonies. However, it took the colonizers almost 200 years
to find gold in Brazil as it was discovered only in 1693 in
Minas Gerais. Soon afterwards, there was a massive influx of settlers to the
region giving origin to what is known as the Brazilian Gold Rush. The world's
longest gold rush period and the largest gold mines in South America were then
created. More than 400,000 Portuguese and half a million African slaves came to
the gold region. There was also a huge influx of European immigrants, mostly
English, Italian and Portuguese.
Literature and the arts flourished in
the region, and a network of towns and cities were built in
a style that was then identified as "Barroco Mineiro" (Baroque from
the mining areas). This style also manifested itself in sculpture, painting,
music and poetry.
I was
born in Belo Horizonte (the current capital of the state) and grew up
surrounded by this artistic heritage, visible in several towns and cities
nearby, including the old colonial capital named Ouro Preto. In the early 20th century
the Brazilian Modernist artists and writers reevaluated a style that had been
derided as a sign of colonial backwardness and championed efforts of
scholarship and preservation of this heritage.
Recently
there was a historiographical review of this art that is linked to revisions of
the scope of the Baroque that took place towards the end of the 20 century, in
which a lot that had been previously considered to be Baroque became identified
as Rococo. Rococo had first been identified as a mostly decorative style
restricted to late 18th century France, but nowadays it is
considered a multinational art style with a much larger scope.
Particularly in the state of Minas Gerais, a lot
of what was first understood to be the particular kind of Baroque I mentioned
above – Barroco Mineiro – has now been associated with Rococo. Myriam Andrade Ribeiro
de Oliveira is a scholar who graduated in History at the Federal University of
Minas Gerais, got a Master degree at the Catholic University of Louvain,
Belgium and a PhD at the University of London and has written extensively about
Baroque and Rococo in Brazil. Together with older scholars such as Germain
Bazin, she is a new reference for anybody interested in understanding the how
both styles manifested in Brazil.
In the next paragraphs
I intend to look at Baroque and Rococo, in search for characteristics that have
informed the choices I make while painting and of which I had been to a great
extent unaware.
Baroque
It is essential to
cite Germain Bazin in order to talk about Baroque in Brazil. Bazin was an art
professor at the University of Brussels, an art historian and
chief curator of paintings at the Louvre Museum who spent time in Brazil carefully
studying and writing about what he saw. He is a key scholar for me since -
unlike other authors who wrote about Baroque - when Bazin does it, he takes
under consideration not only the body of work he found in Europe, but also what
he saw and studied in Brazil.
When writing about
Baroque, Bazin says, “the essential feature of Baroque art was a fundamental
ambiguity”. He states that Baroque artists proclaimed themselves the heirs of
the Renaissance and claimed to accept its norms, but they also violated these norms
systematically both “in the spirit” and in practice. If Renaissance meant
equilibrium, moderation, sobriety, reason, and logic, “Baroque meant movement,
desire for novelty, love of the infinite and the non-finite, of contrasts and
the bold fusion of all forms of art”. It was dramatic, exuberant, and
theatrical as the preceding period had been serene and restrained.
With that in mind, and
looking back at the body of work I have produced, I can see a series of Baroque
art influences in my production.
1. I have the
consistent need to produce movement in my work, an intrinsic characteristic of
whatever kind of work I make.
2. I have always
looked for ways to surprise myself while working. Actually, the whole process
of starting a painting by drawing lines with my eyes closed and then choosing
moments that appear unexpected to me speak to that. I have also looked for
moments of surprise in my way of dealing with colors, while I was looking for
complex harmonies that encompass harmonious and dissonant tones. Therefore,
when Bazin talks about Baroque art meaning a permanent “desire for novelty”, I
completely identified my work with it.
3. About the manner in
which I deal with content, as I said in the statement of an exhibition I had
some time ago “I try to explore the tenuous line between latent and manifest
content so that the painting appears to the observer as a fragment of a
greater, unreachable, mysterious whole.”
Rococo
Charles and Klaus call
our attention to the fact that in the 18th century a big change
takes place in the arts and that “the educated and prosperous bourgeoisie began
to discuss works of art which had hitherto been largely left up to the nobility
and the royal courts.”
According to Levey in
“Rococo to Revolution”, the standards set by the baroque were essentially those
that are “unattainable to ordinary humanity”. It does not please or amuse but
stuns the spectator.
Rococo, on the other
hand, charms the viewer. It treats solemn themes light-heartedly, to an extent
in which it is accused of displaying a rose-tinted view of life. It is free
from autocratic propaganda, from being historically true or didactically moral.
Also, it has
deliberately removed itself from the task of recording natural appearances.
Levey cites Braque when he says that “A vase in one of my paintings is not a
utensil which will hold water, but an object re-created for a new purpose”, to
play its role in creating movement and composition. And the composition is now
uncluttered, “the final effect is of charm”.
Myriam Andrade Ribeiro
de Oliveira claims that Rococo verses over a hedonistic lifestyle, an idealized
world of pleasure. It takes on Baroque dynamism and refines it, it is a much
more elegant and attractive style.
Minor talks about a “feminized world of
romantic love” with human figures in dreamlike poses
without
a care in the world.
Rococo influenced my work in many ways.
1.
Composition: I think throughout time I grew more and more concerned
with uncluttering my compositions. I do not intend to overwhelm the spectator,
but on the contrary, to be able to hold a conversation (one that does not make
use of words) in a pleasant atmosphere.
2.
Also, I have recently become aware
that, when looking for dissonant colors for the work, my first instinct was to
replicate colors and motifs I saw when I was downtown. People in the streets used
lively combinations with one pattern on top and another on underneath and
vibrant colors in freer, more festive arrangements. I hope to bring this into
my paintings.
3.
The characteristic above is connected
to, but not less inclusive than the idea that Rococo promotes hedonism. Myriam
jokingly states that if one with a heavy soul wants to pray he/she should go to
a Baroque church; but one with a light soul should go to a Rococo church. Would it be possible to assume that the
person focusing on guilt and looking for punishment is in a Baroque mode; the
one ready to forgive and move on is in a Rococo mode?
I
am don’t exactly look for, but I think I end up choosing moments of joy and
curiosity in my work.
4.
Elegance, a trait so vaguely defined in
the text by Myriam, is something that appears in the curves and contours I
create. I became aware of this quite recently and I think it points to issues
of aesthetics that I will deal with in a future moment.
5.
Finally, Myriam talks about the
obsession of Rococo with asymmetrical compositions. I actually cannot think of
a work in which I used symmetrical composition, be it painting a series of
tiles! or in my abstract work. Besides, I generally avoid placing what I
identify as the climax of the work in the center of the canvas and this per se
creates asymmetrical work. I usually expect an interaction in which the eyes of
the viewer move around the canvas, stopping for a moment in some place that is
not the center of the canvas just to be invited to keep moving all over the
piece. Once again I think the origins of this are to be found in the Rococo.
The exercise of
reading about the styles and thinking about my work has proven really helpful. It
seems to me the possibility of looking at my work through the lenses of both
Baroque and Rococo adds positively to the scope of issues I identify in my
work. Both styles have influenced me in
many more ways that I had first suspected.
Bibliography:
Andrade Ribeiro de
Oliveira, Myriam. O Rococó religioso no
Brasil e seus antecedents europeus. São Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2003.
BAZIN, Germain. The Baroque and Rococo Art. Westport:
Praeger, 1966.
CHARLES, Victoria &
KLAUS, Carl H. Rococo. NYC: Parkstone PI, 2010.
KIMBALL, Fiske. The creation of Rococo. New York:
Harvard UP, 1946.
LEVEY, Michael. Rococo to Revolution. New York: Thames
Hudson, 1985.
MINOR, Vernon Hyde.
Baroque & Rococo. Art & Culture. London: Laurence King, 1999.
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