In a world the place noise and commotion are more and more prevalent, and the place it appears out of trend to not make one’s presence loudly felt, José Lerma provides a face to the bystanders and the silent witnesses within the again. However solely carefully—the faces he presents to us are, in any case, stripped all the way down to their most simple options. Extremely stylized and inflexible, they preserve solely the naked necessities of facial construction in what the artist calls “the abstract of a portrait.” His work transcend mere illustration, teetering on the sting of abstraction.
The profile work in Bayamonesque are a cornerstone of José Lerma’s oeuvre. Over the previous decade and a half, since encountering Jean-Léon Gérôme’s ‘Reception of the Grand Condé by Louis XIV’ on the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, he has been captivated by the sparse brushstrokes with which Gérôme rendered background figures. Most of Lerma’s works are created in a single session. His medium—a heavy, unwieldy mix of development supplies and acrylics—dries shortly, leaving little to no margin for error. The immediacy of his course of intently aligns along with his purpose of capturing the quickness of a sketch.
Although the roots of Lerma’s concepts lie within the neoclassical and romantic traditions of Gérôme, he additionally attracts inspiration from the sketch-like qualities of the Bay Space Figurative Motion and the work of Belgian artist Bram Bogart. The latter reference comes as no shock: Bogart, a key determine in casual artwork, grew to become identified for his thick, cement-like canvases. Lerma holds Bogart’s impasto-rich works in excessive regard: “Bogart set my blueprint. I simply hyper-stylized it.” As with Bogart, so too with Lerma—his plasticine-like textures evoke an nearly primal, childlike urge to succeed in out and contact their provocative surfaces.
Bayamonesque marks the top of an period. The previous fifteen to eighteen years have led to the end result of this profile sequence as we all know it. José Lerma sees this physique of labor because the conclusion of his present inventive cycle, bringing the viewer again to his homeland and the acquainted faces of his previous to finish this chapter. There are delicate shifts, nevertheless—the pores and skin tones and floor colours now replicate extra vivid blues, reds, and greens, lending the figures an otherworldly, nearly synthetic glow. They appear much less illuminated by pure gentle and extra like they exist beneath a wholly completely different spectrum.
The title of the exhibition displays the interaction of opposites, a recurring theme all through Lerma’s profession. He grew up in Bayamón, an industrial suburb on the outskirts of Puerto Rico. Although not identified for its picturesque qualities, Bayamón holds a particular place within the artist’s coronary heart, infusing this exhibition with a way of on a regular basis life. The quotidian nature of his hometown is made poetic by the suffix he provides to it, embodying the incongruity he delights in exploring. The profile work, in any case, are constructed on the same distinction—balancing the surplus of thick impasto with the sparseness of only a few brushstrokes, and utilizing massive canvases to seize what are, basically, sketches. Then once more, the abundance of fabric makes a Lerma work unimaginable on a small scale.
The topics, some real-life acquaintances from Lerma’s native Puerto Rico and others pure invention, are chosen with a eager eye for element—or quite, for the dearth of element he requires them to be portrayed successfully. The artist shortly discerns whether or not somebody lends themselves to this sequence based mostly on sure defining traits. As Lerma himself places it: “The summary painter in me is, above all, drawn to sure folks for particular options that may be damaged all the way down to their naked minimal as paintable components: an expressive cowl, a putting nostril, a particular form of lips.” Anybody will be captured in a portrait, however solely a choose few can embody the essence of José Lerma’s work.
