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The whole life in the Art Translated from Spanish to English by Morris Strong
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Biography
The beginning Deepening
Consolidation
Projection
I trace the unforeseen surprises of my destiny, the darkening light inexorably deciding to stay, contemplating the flame that dies before my eyes‌
Positioning
Currently
Critical comments 4
More Information Graciela Gómez “AMERICA, AMERICA” (Video) COLARTE - Graciela Gómez (URL)
Translated from Spanish to English by Morris Strong 5
Biography
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GRACIELA GÓMEZ born in Bogotá, Colombia, has been involved with art since a very early age. When she was a child she received an Art Studies scholarship in an international painting competition which she could not accept due to her short age. While in high school, she started private painting and engraving lessons. Still a child, she had her first individual painting exhibit in the National Library, Colombia’s most prestigious Gallery at the time. From that moment on, her art activities have been ongoing, as may be noted by her individual and collective art exhibits, some of them abroad. Tireless traveler, she is always accompanied by her artwork, to satisfy ongoing commitments, mostly with museums and cultural organizations in Europe and the Americas. Due to her constant updating in the conceptual, aesthetic, historical, didactic and technical aspects, she has been invited to participate in six European artists symposiums; her personal style and technique were very well accepted by organizers, fellow artist, critics and the press.
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Most important individual exhibits 1954 1956 1963 1976 1976 1976 1976 1978 1978 1978 1978 1979 1979 1979 1980 1980 1980 1980 1981 1981 1982 1982 1982 1983 1984 1984 1986 1986 1987
Gregorio Vasquez Salon; National Library, Bogota, Colombia. Gregorio Vasquez and Roberto Pizano Salons; National Library, Bogota, Colombia. Gregorio Vasquez and Roberto Pizano Salons; National Library, Bogota, Colombia. Bacardi Gallery, Miami, FL. U.S.A. Omni International Hotel, Miami, FL. U.S.A. Luis Angel Arango Library, Bogota, Colombia. Ocre Gallery, Caracas Venezuela. Asociacion Cultural Maraven, Caracas, Venezuela. Charpentier Gallery, Quito, Ecuador. La Gruta, Gilberto Alzate Avendaño Foundation, Bogota, Colombia. Art 4 Gallery, N.Y. U.S.A. Guayaquil Municipal Museum, Ecuador. Caracas Military Circle, Venezuela. OEA Gallery, Quito, Ecuador. Andrés Bello Cultural Group Gallery, Bogota. Colombia. Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade Gallery. FUNARTE, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Nicolaj Church, Copenhagen, Denmark. UNESCO Headquarters Paris, France. Iberoamerican Cooperation Institute, Madrid, Spain. Societe Generale Gallery. Paris, France. Bellas Artes Museum – Puerto Rico Cultural Institute, San Juan. Puerto Rico. Latinoamerican Art Museum, Main Gallery Washington. U.S.A. Staff Galleries, Federal Reserve Board, Washington, U.S.A. Pluma Gallery. Bogota, Colombia. Organization of United Nations ONU and Colombian Consulate, Nueva York, U.S.A. Bellas Artes de Lujan Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina. General San Martin Cultural Center, Buenos Aires Argentina. Modern Art Museum, Casa de la Cultura, Quito, Ecuador 8
1988 1989 1989 1991 1991 1992 1992 1992 1993 1994 1999 1999 2000 2011 2012
National Cultural Foundation, Santiago de Chile, Chile. Bogota Chamber of Commerce, North Office. Bogota, Colombia. El Dzunum Gallery, Ciudad de Guatemala, Central America. Muvelodési Kozpont, hajdubozormeny, Hungary. National Museum. Bogota, Colombia. Korona Podium, Buda Castle, Budapest, Hungary. Gaffelaer Gallery. Breda, Holland. Dorotheum. Viena, Austria. Colombian Senate. Bogota, Colombia. Colombian Foreign Ministry, Bogota, Colombia. Francisco de Paula Santander Museum. Bogota, Colombia. Bogota Chamber of Commerce, North Office. Bogota, Colombia. Bogota Chamber of Commerce. Cedritos Enterpreneurial Center. Bogota, Colombia. Contemporary Art Bolivarian Museum. Santa Marta, Colombia. FGG House Museum, Bogota, Colombia.
Most important collective exhibits 1975 1977 1985 1980 1980 1985 1987 1989 1990 1991 1992
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XXV National Artists Salon. Bogota, Colombia. Buchholz Gallery. Bogota, Colombia. IV International Art Biennial. Valparaíso, Chile. Nine Artists. Latinoamerican Studies Center. Nueva York, N.Y. U.S.A. Gallery Fjorten, Copenhague, Dinamarca. VII International Art Biennial. Valparaíso, Chile. VIII International Art Biennial. Valparaíso, Chile. IX International Art Biennial. Valparaíso, Chile. District Planetarium, Convenio Andrés Bello, 20 Years. Bogota, Colombia. Kozlekedèsi Múzeum, Budapest, Hungary. Hadtorténeti Múzeum. Budapest, Hungary.
Duna Gallery. Budapest, Hungary. Atelier 92 . Vervins, France. Thiérache Festival. France. 21 Salón D´automne. Hirson. France. Elan Gallery. Debrecen, Hungary. Hajduhadjás . Hungary. Bucka Ganyo. Subotica, Yugoslavia. FIAL 94. Guest Artist Exhibits Palace. Brussels, Belgium. Hispanic and Latinoamerican Museum. Miami, Fl, U.S.A. Euroamerica Galleries. New York, U.S.A. Bohemia News. San Francisco, U.S.A. 15 Avenue Art on Buildings. Bogota, Colombia. Svenska Konstgalleriet. Malmö, Sweden. FYR Gallery. Florence, Italy. FIART. Bellas Artes Museum, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Gallivare Museum. Gallivare, Sweden. Goyarte Gallery. Zaragoza, Spain. FIARTE . Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Galerie du Gildo Pastor Center. Mónaco. Expoescocia, Irvine, Scottland. 2013-14 Museum of the Americas. Itinerant in various european and U.S. locations. 2014 Participant Museum of the Americas exhibit 30 Selected Contemporary Artists, Miami, FL, U.S.A. 2015 “Louvre Carrousel”. Paris, France. 1992 1992 1992 1992 1993 1994 1994 1994 1998 1998 1998 2003 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 2011
By invitation, has participated in international symposiums 1991 1992
1994
Hajdubozormeny, Hungary. Hortobagy, Hungary. Vervins, France. Kamianka, Ucrania. Hortobagy, Hungary. Saint Michel, Francia. 10
Most important docent experience 1965-1966 1973-1986 1980-1982 1987 to date 1988-2009
Painting Teacher. Instituto de Investigaciones Artisticas. Bogota. Cultural Departament Director and Plastic Arts and Art History Professor. Colegio Abraham Lincoln. Bogota. Asesora Técnica de Materiales para Artistas. Instrumentarium. Bogotá. Founder and Principal Director, Art Work Shop “Crearte G.G.” Bogota, Colombia. Examiner for visual Arts, International Baccalaureate.
Artistic and literary publications 1980 1982 1984 1984 1995 1997 2000 2003 2007 2009 2014
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Lithographs Collection: Spaces, Transparencies, Abstractions, Myths of the Feminine Figure. Editors: Navas Editors, Bogota, Colombia. Paint Your World, and Introduction to Art. Bochica Editors. Bogota, Colombia. Paint Your World, second edition. Bochica Editors, Bogota, Colombia. Graciela Gomez Biography, Italgraf Editors, Bogota, Colombia. Day and Night, Lithograph Collection. Transformation Art-Work, Etchings and Poems. Bogota, Colombia. My Enigma, first of her poetry books. The Time Shadow, her second poetry book. Cadencies, her third poetry book. Colombian Flora, a Limited Edition Collection of 16 Lithographs, numbered and signed. Included 30 Selected Contemporary International Artists Book. Artist Library Editors, Museum of the Americas.
The beginning
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Ideas germinate slowly in the depths of the soul like beautiful pearls in their beds of nacre.
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Paisaje Boyacense Oil 70 x 100 cms 1954
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1954 - 1960 Graciela Gómez, born in Bogota (1940). When she was still a child, she won a scholarship for adults at an International Painting Competition, although she could not accept the prize for not meeting the age requirement. From that moment on, she began private lessons with Maestro Carlos Díaz Forero (1952-1956), winner of the National Artists Salon VII, who gave her the basis to begin feeling that this would be the her life passion. In 1953, inspired by the landscapes of the surrounding countryside of her native Bogota, its flowers, still lives, fishes and birds, she decided to make her first private art show, attended by renowned personalities of culture such as Carlos López Narváez, Gabriel Giraldo Jaramillo, Hugo Salazar Valdés, among others; in face of the quality of the sample, they determined that the show deserved to be exhibited at Colombia’s National Library, considered at the time as the first showroom in the country. Ever since she decided to show her works at cultural sites, primarily by the demanding selection and filters that her works would be subjected to and to the freedom to express her inner self in her works.
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On the advice of her mentors, in 1954 she had her first public show of her works at the National Library; the inaugural speech by the then Director of Cultural Extension of the Ministry of Education, the poet Hugo Salazar Valdes focused on giving a personal perspective on what he considered would be the development of her artistic talent, by approaching it with determination, planning, discipline and perseverance. Below, a fragment of his speech: “Ladies and Gentlemen: I have the feeling that this moment will not be forgotten by any of us. And so it will, because we are here witnessing the birth of a clear talent, a formidable vocation of a painter that will surely be remembered by generations to come. (...) But let us not deem her an early or prodigy, much less a genius. Fourteen years of age are not surprising, but, conversely, may well express the gifts of nature in a beautiful and fresh female architecture. The author of art show is Graciela Gomez Santos, Bogotanian of origin, ancestry and landscape. That is the main reason for the dynastic grace of these heights, their light, and their gray haze unmistakably and prodigiously incorporated into her paintings, which for the delight and admiration of our spirits, summons us tonight. (...) I tell you that Graciela Gomez Santos will go far! She has her whole life ahead of her. A palette to make history and talents to gain celebrity. We proudly introduce this new Colombian hope. (…) And as the passage of time will tell us how far ahead she went thanks to her effort and ambition; rejoice at the coming of age of her intelligence, born privileged for the dialogue with dreams and immaterial substance. “ Hugo Salazar Valdés, October 8, 1954, Bogota-Colombia
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Pantano
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Oil 70 x 100 cms 1954
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According to the artist, this speech would become a key factor on dedicating her life to art. In 1955 she won the “Painting Contest” organized by the Colombian firm Firma Leonidas Lara e hijos, which besides complimenting her work, introduced her into the artistic arena of the time. In 1957 she continued her studies with Maestro Guillermo Acevedo Navas at the Escuela de Bellas Artes of the city of Bucaramanga and although very young, she began to teach in 1958 at the Academia Tanagra in Bogotá, which she founded. During this time period she had some individual art shows of her works, including her first show abroad, which showed great dedication from someone as young as her.
Bruma
Oil 70 x 100 cms 1954
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Deepening
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I watch the road in serenity‌ I raise my eyes and find myself willing to continue walking through the torns while caressing the stars with my hand.
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Catedral de Sal de Zipaquirรก Mixed on wood 123 x 123 cms 1967
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1961 - 1970 A decade of great relevance due to her dedication to the study and experimentation with materials and pigments, particularly oxides, mixed with oils, acrylics, water with binders and watercolors as well as their behavior on different support materials of natural papers, texturized with paint rollers, wood, cardboards, linen, cotton and synthetics, marble dust, sand and metals, always seeking special qualities and textures. She always uses on her works ample curves as basis for her compositions dividing the pictorial spaces in planes for later development of her topics. Such curves move slowly from the surrounding space to become key factors of the central themes, which she then uses to build and structure figures were the faces -- somewhat schematic, begin to take part. For a very long time she was a regular visitor of the Luis Ángel Arango library, documenting herself on fishes and birds, a process that she concluded in 1963 with the individual show of her paintings at Colombia’s National Library (Biblioteca Nacional). She complimented her undergraduate studies under the tutorship of the Swede artist Aarón Erickson (1966) and by learning the batik technique.
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Composici贸n Oil 120 x 120 cms 1967
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I have felt the rumor of nature roaming through my being and thus I have been a plant, a bird, a creek, a fish and sand. Light makes its transit to its unknown destination.
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Consolidation
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1971 - 1980 During this decade she dedicated herself to the promotion of her work in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, the United States and Denmark. Continuing with her purpose of positioning her works of art at the venues with the greatest cultural impact at national and international levels, mainly museums, libraries and cultural institutions of America and Europe. She had individual shows at Colombia’s Luis Ángel Arango library, the Fundacion Gilberto Alzate Avendaño and the Andrés Bello Convention in Bogotá, at the Maravén Cultural Association and the Military Circle in Caracas, at the Gallery of the OAS in Quito, Ecuador, at Guayaquil´s Municipal Museum, the Funarte Gallery in Rio de Janeiro and the Nikolag Church in Denmark and in collective shows in Colombia, Chile, United States, Great Britain and Denmark.
Cúmulo de Sentimientos
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Acrylic
Graciela Gómez shows us a defined style that grants character to her works, individualizing and differentiating them; features that she obtains through her coherent involution, as well as her studies and commitment. Her clarity of concept and precision in execution are constant factors of her works. She discovered the versatility of acrylics and begins to use them as her favorite material in the execution of her works. She begins to work strongly on the human figures with that predominance of feminine ones, settling and rooting themselves as a topic of her predilection in 1972 with her “Homage to Gabriel García Márquez”, a series of seven works inspired in the novel “A Hundred Years of Solitude,” only a few years after its first edition.
Ilusiones Acrylic
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In the words of the artist, her fascination with this literary work focused on the quality and quantity of pictorial imagery suggested by the text, a factor that led her to read the novel a number of times, which then led to these homage-works, to the writer who years later would be awarded The Nobel Prize for Literature. She continued teaching art in different private institutions and compiling expertise. In the year 1973 within the framework of the First International Fair of Flowers she showed a selection of ink drawings of sixteen flower species representing indigenous and representative flowers of Colombia, a research that she performed with the collaboration of Bogota’s Botanical Garden and the Science Institute of Colombia’s National University.
Penumbra Azul
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Acrylic
Light, air, movement, the perception of emptiness. A flow of sensations, subtractions of life. I am but a pilgrim in quest of my being, of my own infinite self.
NĂşcleo Vital. (fragment)
Acrylic and feather on wood 78 x 72 cms 1972
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Girasoles. (fragment)
Acrylic on wood 57 x 78 cms 1974
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During that same year in her individual show “Flowers for a Space,” showed great emphasis in human figures surrounded by vegetation, with the pictorial seal of the artist. She performed independent studies on ichthyology and ornithology at the Science Institute of Colombia’s National University; and her study trip to México in 1976, made her become even more interested in pre-Columbian cultures as well as for the Mexican muralist movement. In 1978 she was awarded the distinction of Honorary Member of the Women Leagues of all Nations in New York and in 1979 as Honorary Member of Ecuador’s Amazonian Institute.
Guayaquil 1979
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I am simply a waning reflection, a tear drying in the dessert air, a diluting whirlwind in the street corner.
Carรกcter
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Acrylic 1980
Projection
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Art found a crevice in my heart, and rooted itself so strongly, that over the years we have become one so completely, that it fills my oceans and my heavens.
Apoyo. (fragment)
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Acrylic 115 x 88 cms 1981
1981 - 1990 A time of great activity and international promotion with individual shows at cultural venues of great relevance in France, Spain, Puerto Rico, United States Argentina, Ecuador, Chile and Guatemala, as well as at the UNESCO in Paris, the Institute of Iber-American Cooperation in Madrid, the Puerto Rican Culture Museum of Fine Arts in San Juan, the Main Room of the Latin American Museum of Art at the OAS in Washington, the United Nations and the Colombian Consulate in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts of Lujan in Buenos Aires and the Cultural Center General San MartĂn in Buenos Aires, The Museum of Modern Art at Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana in Quito, the National Foundation for Culture in Santiago de Chile. She participated in the VIIth, VIIIth and IXth International Biennial of Arts in Valparaiso, Chile.
DesafĂo. (fragment) Acrylic 87 x 56 cms 1981
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Her particular figurative style is not easy to describe by critics; some of them consider it surrealist lyricism and others deem it as neo-figurative. They do agree on the fact that it has been a sum of the inventions and feelings characterized by the development of the (human) figure, within chromatic spaces that is linearly reinforced with strokes of color, achieving a number of dimensions through the use of transparent strokes. Pilo Gómez-Barquero, a she-Spanish artist and author of a number of books on art, wrote: “(…) Graciela’s paintings do not seem neither surrealist nor fanciful to me at all. If they are to be included within the neo-figurative, it would be so because of their (plastic) fine arts aspect, in face of the fact that figures are recognizable in her paintings. For me, today, her paintings are clearly full of symbolism. If Picasso’s white dove represents peace, Graciela’s figures represent: souls. (…) And that is howling 1982 she begins to use diagonals in her paintings with the goal of introducing geometrical planes, intensifying colors and seeking more contrasts to give spectators the feeling of multiple perspectives and spatial sets.
Trilogía de Ensoñación. (fragment)
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Acrylic 1982
As a result of her experience in the field of teaching art and with the aim of creating a tool to support the creative processes of the children she taught while increasing their powers of observation, assimilation, schematic analysis, synthesis and abstraction, in 1982 she wrote, illustrated and published the book “PAINT YOUR WORLD - Introduction to the Art (of Painting)”, which includes work guides for parents and teachers. Widely accepted, as second edition is published in 1984. That same year he was the publication of the book “Graciela Gómez,” to commemorate her 30 years of pictorial activity, which included for the first time some of her poems. The book was launched in Bogota, at the Pluma Gallery, in Nueva York, at the “Dag Hammarskjöld” auditorium of the United Nations, and in Paris at “Radio Latina” and years later in the city of Medellín at the Coltejer Gallery.
Composición II. Acrylic 110 x 84 cms
(fragment)
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Tríptico “Vida” (fragment)
The book motivated the Colombian-Italian journalist Alejandro Schembri, to publish an article in the newspaper El Siglo, for which he was awarded the prestigious Simon Bolívar for cultural journalism. In 1986, after working on a series of works representing “Latin America” with female figures with white veils and showing them in Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Argentina, the Argentineans applauded the series and called her “the painter of America.”
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Acrylic 93 x 184 cms 1882
My night has lasted a thousand nights‌ Eons have gone by in such a short while that I have finally understood the mysteries of life, of love and death.
Mensaje. (fragment)
Acrylic 112 x 85 cms 1983
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Tríptico “América!” Acrylic 100 x 180 cms 1983
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Rostros. (fragment) Acrylic 56 x 85 cms 1983
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Familia. (fragment)
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Acrylic 1986
She then began research seeking to paint her perception of Latin American integration, leading her to paint in 1987 the tryptic on canvass ”Projection to Unity”, in large format (2.20 x 3.60 mts), that she exhibited as the centerpiece of her show at the Museo de Arte Moderno of Casa de La Cultura Ecuatoriana in Quito.
Ave Real. (fragment) Acrylic 1986
In this work she painted for the first time the figure of Bolívar that would lead her to continue studying this multifaceted character of history, documenting herself on his human side and in 1989 she inaugurated the series “Bolívar the Man,” at the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce.
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Starting in 1985 she focused her interest on the pictograms of the Chibcha tribe and in the expressions of different pre-Columbian cultures of Colombia and Central America, which led to her individual show in Guatemala, where she exhibited in 1989 at diptych inspired in the Popol Vuh. Her experience as a teacher and the progress made in her theory of innovating pedagogy, defined by her as an experimental method, led her to found in 1987 the workshop Crearte the same year she was selected as examiner for the International Baccalaureate program, a Swiss organization with a grading center in Great Britain, for the Program of Art and Design for Colombia, Venezuela and occasionally other Latin American countries.
Simón. (fragment)
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Series “Bolívar el Hombre” Acrylic 1989
Her numerous investigations for the development of the murals technique and the means of adapting conceptual, composition, chromatic and dynamic perspectives aspects, relating them to the social and psychological impact oriented towards massive audiences on great surfaces, led her to execute in 1990, the mural: “LIBERTY” (45 m2), on Colombian journalism for the entrance hall of the newspaper Vanguardia Liberal in the city of Bucaramanga, as a symbol of freedom of expression.
Desencanto.
(fragment)
Series “Bolívar el Hombre” Acrylic 80 x 60 cms 1989
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Where might the moon be, that I cannot see it tonight? My heart awaits crawling in expectancy, hunting for a glitter of light, however small to light the road for my feet on the clay.
Cenit.
(fragment)
Series “Bolívar el Hombre” Acrylic 1989
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Positioning
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And I slowly create universes of strange dimensions following the whistling winds that cross the faraway regions of my dreams with the easiness of birds in flight…
Perú. (fragment)
Series “Mujer Latina Geografía de América” Acrylic 1991
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1991 - 2000 During this decade she intensifies her positioning through individual shows in cultural venues of Colombia, the United States and Europe, the latter in countries such as: Hungary, Ukraine, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Yugoslavia and Belgium. The venues are Colombia’s National Museum, the Senate of the Republic, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Museum Francisco de Paula Santander and the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce. The international venues were the Muvelodési Kozpont at Hajdubozormeny and the Korona Podium, the Buda Castle in Budapest and the Dorotheum in Vienna.
La Pecosa. (fragment)
Acrylic 29 x 34 cms 1991
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She also participated in collective art shows at the OAS in Colombia, the Kozlekedesi Múzeum and the Hadtorténeti Múzeum in Budapest, the Hajdúhadjázi Gallery in Hajdúhadjázi, the Atelier 92 and the Thiérache Festival in Vervins, the 21st Showroom d’Automne in Hirson, hat Bucka Ganyo in Subotica, the FIAL 94 as Guest Artist in Brussels, the Florida Museum of Hispanic Art and the Latin American Museum in Miami, at Euroamérica Galleries in New York and at Bohemia News in San Francisco. She continued performing her works under strict geometrical composition as supports for her human figures, in some cases based in modified Golden proportions depending on the format and the topic. Her preferred material continued to be acrylics, treated in the form of reinforced lineal transparencies. She makes significant progress on mural techniques, by working on a number of preparation tasks in her atelier, before incorporating the paintings on the walls, through penetration needles, achieving a personal technique with the acrylic emulsion. Her interest in topics of Colombia and Latin America, lead her in 1991 to the creation of the series “Latino Women, Geography of America,” incorporating geographical, ethnic and cultural aspects. Trietnia III.
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(fragment)
Acrylic 78 x 60 cms
Thanks to her permanent updating in conceptual, aesthetic, historical, didactical and technical aspects, she was invited to participate as the sole representative of the American continent in six symposiums in France and Ukraine between 1991 and 1994, places where she received a number of awards for the quality of her work. She left as a gift for the city of Hajduboszormeny in Hungary a tryptic she painted “on-site,” with the title ”Greetings from America on its 500th Anniversary,” it work that led to have been invited to show her works individually in Budapest, to commemorate the 500 years of the discovery of America. In 1992 she performed the series of 26 works: “SONG OF AMERICA,” performed in three parts: Overture, Intermezzo and Apotheosis. The first part deals with topics related to the race of the Native Americans, the arrival of the European influence, the mixture and evolution of races and cultures, with their different contributions; then a pictorial analysis of the present day and finally a projection towards the future. The series was shown in different venues in Colombia, Hungary, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium. Colombia.
(fragment)
Series “Latina Geografía de América” Acrylic 1991
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Fusión
Series “Canto de América, Obertura” Acrylic 90 x 120 cms 1991
In 1993 she produced the “PROYECTO COLOMBIA, AN ECOLOGICAL VISION,” a series of 16 paintings and a tryptic of 2.20 x 3.60 mts., where the determining factors of her work converge: human figure -- mainly women, the land with its fauna and flora, Colombia and nature itself. In 1993, after documenting herself from different sources she began the series “AFRICANITY XXIst Century,” focusing on physical, spiritual and cultural themes of the African population and their influence upon their arrival to America, particularly in Colombia.
Etnia. (fragment)
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Series “Canto de América, Obertura” Acrylic 90 x 120 cms 1991
In 1998 she decided that it was time that another of the dreams come through and thus she created the Fundación Graciela Gómez, a nonprofit organization that strengthens the educational and rehab scholarships fund for children suffering from the Down Syndrome from low-income households, through the development of artistic and cultural activities. Since 1998 she has been a member of the Rotary Club Bogotá Chico and from that moment on of the program ROTARIES IN THE ARTS, as organizer of the annual version of this event. She continued her interest and liking of poetry, which led her to illustrate and publish two of her books “Transformations” (1997) and “My Enigmas” (2000).
Habitat.
(fragment)
Series “Canto de América, Obertura” Acrylic 90 x 120 cms 1991
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While I make my way walking towards my unknown destination, my feet heavy in the dust, my eyes fixed in the stars…
Raíces.
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(fragment)
Series “Canto de América, Obertura” Acrylic 90 x 120 cms 1991
Tríptico
Series “Colombia Visión Ecológica” Acrylic 220 x 360 cms 1993
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Mujer Fruta
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Acrylic 1996
Deslumbrante. (fragment)
Series “Negritud Siglo XXI” Acrylic 60 x 80 cms 1998
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Cavilación
Series “Negritud Siglo XXI” Acrylic 54 x 39 cms 1998
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Currently
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Celestial bodies follow their predictable paths; vertigo, light, harmony‌ And while I wonder who we are, the universe answers: Only a whiff of life!
JesĂşs
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Oil 133 x 81 cms 2001
Estructura Oil 76 x 133 cms 2001
2001-to date During this time period she has focused on the promotion of her works through individual show in Colombia and collective ones in Canada, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Dominican Republic, Principality of Monaco, Scotland, United Arab Emirates, the United States, France, the Netherlands and Austria.
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The cultural institutions where she has shown her works during this time period are the Bolivarian Museum of Contemporary Art at the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino in Santa Marta, the University Los Libertadores and the Versailles Gallery of the Tequendama in BogotĂĄ, the Montjui in Barcelona, the Svenska Konstgalleriet in Malmo, the FYR Gallery in Florence and the Palace Museum of Fine Arts. FIART in Santo Domingo, the Gallivare Museum in Gallivare, the Galerie du Gildo Pastor Center in the Principality of Monaco, the Harbor Art Center in Irvine, the Louvre Carrousel in Paris.
VĂa Violenta IV
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Acrylic and Oil 49 x 40 cms 2001
Pareja
Oil 90 x 88 cms 2004
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Crepúsculo
The geometrical proposals in her works have been a constant and during this time period she has worked on the mathematical theory of the fractals as a basis for her compositions, giving as a result a clear trend towards a very personal constructivism. In 2005 she painted the mural “MURAL HISTÓRICO DE LA POLICIA NACIONAL” for the Museum Historical Palace of Colombia’s National Police in Bogotá. It is lateral wall pays tribute to the heroes fallen on the line of duty. The mural “Myths of the Sierra” (220 x 360), which refers to the ancestral mythology of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, the untitled mural of the Central Hospital of the National Police, located in a reserved with that composition that invites to joy and relaxation. Lastly in 2008, the murals related to “CREATION,” located at the entrance Hall of the Santa Clara church in Bogotá.
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Acrylic 37 x 128 cms 2006
In 2009, to commemorate Colombia’s Bicentennial of Independence, she retook the works that she had performed on flora in 1973, to relaunch at the José Celestino Mutis Botanical Garden, the lytographic edition of “Colombian Flora”, integrated by 16 selected works. Her marked interests for ancient cultures of the continent and with the idea of representing American as an extraordinary territory, in 2011 she performed the series “AMERICA, AMERICA,” that centers on ancestral, anthropological, mythical, ecological and futuristic views on the topic. She worked simultaneously on two series: “Visualizations” and “Landscapes of Memory.”
Cosecha. (fragment) Oil 84 x 70 cms 2006
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The knowledge and expertise acquired by the artist while teaching for 26 years in her Crearte workshop and 22 as examiner for the International Baccalaureate program, have prepared her for speaking activities in conferences and seminars on Art History, particularly in extension courses on the didactic methodology of fine arts and resources for art teachers of different grades from public and private institutions, both from Colombia and abroad.
Mirada. (fragment)
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Oil 24 X 24 cms 2009
Mirada Antropológica. (fragment)
Series “América, América” Oil 95 x 125 cms 2010
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For many years now she has managed, been a curator and worked on the museology for countless collective and individual art shows, of national and international artists, activities that have demanded from her constant exploration, training and devolution. On the fields we would like to highlight her work as a curator and guest artist in the last three versions of the “Night of the Arts” (2011/12/14), at the Residence of the United States Ambassador In Bogotá, and activity promoted by the American Society of Bogota in association with the United States Embassy, a benefit for the scholarship project for Colombian children from low-income households.
Mirada Mítica. (fragment)
Series “América, América” Oil 95 x 125 cms 2010
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Through the Foundation that bears her name, she has organized massive events at public and private venues, collective and individual art shows, some of the most relevant being in 2003, “La 15 Art in Facades” Centro Comercial de Cielo Abierto, almost 1.000 m2 of original works of art in 2007, “Volumetric Reflections”, and the World Trade Center, the show of 40 sculptures in open air and since 2007 at the North and the historical branches of the Club de Banqueros y Empresarios of Bogotá, in an eight-year contract, for individual and collective art shows of sculpture and painting for a number of artists.
Altiva y Serna Presencia. (fragment) Series “América, América” Oil 125 x 95 cms 2010
On the same line and so as to expand the circle of promotion of Colombian artists at events organized in the United States as well as in countries of Europe and Asia, in 2013 she accepted the representation in Colombia of the Museum of the Americas, a nonprofit founded 21 years ago.
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Sol mítico de América. (fragment) Series “América, América” 125 x 95 cms 2011
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In 2003 and 2007 she published two of her new books of poetry “The Shadow of Time” and “Cadences” respectively; and in the year 2013 she was awarded the medal Literary Work and an Honorary Mention in two anthologies of Editorial Raíz Alternativa, Buenos Aires. Currently she is preparing a new book “Soliloquy”. She has earned positive critical reviews and commentaries from connoisseurs in the media of many countries.
Fragancia Sutil
Series “América, América” 125 x 95 cms 2011
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Añoranza
Series “Visualizaciones” Oil 28 x 22.5 cms 2014
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Night has come over my soul as I open my heart to fill it with stars…
Ocaso
Series “Paisajes de la Memoria” Oil 66 x 50 cms 2015
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Deep in thought we contemplate our own indefinite extension‌ space is nothingness. Figures slowly emerge from the fog‌ space is everything! It is imitated by absence and expanded by mirages; musical notes that soothe the air with a touch of stillness, are modulated by memory, by the vibrations of laughter and pain. We are but walkers in paths created by thought. Every step takes us into the past, the present and the future. We are the light that sparkles here and there while taking different shapes; reflections of feelings. Fog disappears in thin air on the chariots of the breeze, while colors strike hard --full of energy in the sunlight, making us perceive shiny inhabitants of places that invade our everything and our nothingness.
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Critical comments
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A Precocious Painter. Graciela Gómez Santos. “We feel that the paintings shown here can be divided into two groups. One is integrated by oil landscapes and still lives that have the merit of having been painted by a 14-year-old student. These works are not the ones that catch our eyes. But the other group should be taken into account, not merely as an expression of precociousness, but simply as an artistic expression. The oil canvases “Colloquium” and “Porcelains” belonged to this group being differentiated thanks to the achievement of color composition. And beyond the oil canvases, the creative vocation of the young artist is perceived in the positive perception of her pastels: energy, assuredness, talent. Her drawings, evidence of authentic temperament imposed themselves as a clear personal statement. Her coloring is very elegant as can be seen in “Vereda”, a landscape without pretensions and yet of exquisite chromatic harmony. “Cerros and Brumas” reveals a new concept of the plane, organized in geometrical signs subordinate to a great constructive rhythm. We do not pretend that this young artist should venture into a fine arts adventure contrary to her convictions, but we feel it would be worth the while for her to try to organize the surfaces of her paintings based on similar principles in a conscious and systematic fashion thus, the finding -- perhaps accidental of “Cerros and Brumas” could be pointing to a new path of fertile constructivism. At any rate, the basic idea is already found in the latter painting. At 14 years of age, Graciela Gómez Santos is already a painter. In perspective, precocious talents not always justify the expectations placed on them. But it cannot be denied that the paintings in general and the pastels in particular of this young artist bear a pleasing promise.” By Walter Engel, “El Tiempo.” 1954 Bogotá, Colombia
“(…) with great results, the spatula forces the painter to occupy herself with color as a subject matter, to struggle with it and to use it as a constructive element of plasticity. In this way, “the landscape” stops being the mere reproduction of a cold, subtropical or tropical land, to be primarily paintings (…)” “Intermedio” 1956 Bogotá, Colombia
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“Lightly touching the strings of a violin with an arc, cutting stone, coloring a canvas or outlining a gesture, are no big deal; but knowing how to express all of the greatness of humankind in these productions, is getting closer to the essence of that which exists…,” thus writes the scholar and esoteric Ivan Drenikoff-Andhi in his book “The Art of Subconscious” (Monte Ávila Editores C.A., 1972, Caracas). I feel that I am allowed to say that the works of Graciela Gómez are well aimed towards their goal: feeling the pulse of life, transmuting these heartbeats to the sensitive and receptive spectator. Prof. Heinz Dollaker, 1978 Caracas, Venezuela “The elements that integrates her paintings discover the essence of subconscious to push it towards consciousness – that which is visible- where “Gracilian” species flourish… Arabesque abstractions that miraculously show themselves as bodies, faces and landscapes; reality within unreality, simultaneously sensual and spiritual. Graciela has no one alike in her style and themes. She is a thoroughbred artist. It is worth the while to go into communion with her works, to watch them and to appreciate them. It is something like a walk through the garden of Eden.” Prof. Heinz Dollaker, 1978 Caracas, Venezuela
Torso. (fragment) Acrylic 24 x 19 cms 1978
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“Graciela Gómez belongs to the new figures, a trend that groups renovating painters that, careful not to destroy their objectives, wish the predominance of subjectivity to rebuild a venturous world, granting them a spirit of appeasement, while joining together faces and bodies. Her use of the external curve expresses the desire for shapes and color is thus subordinated to the axis of those forms. The tonalities that she uses in the horizons of her paintings summing combinations used by the Expressionists and the Surrealists are useful to give them an aureole to an atmosphere of inner self giving a strong rise to human figures. They are naked bodies and faces of reflexive rhythms with a cadence that is undoubtedly oriental.” Abstract of the commentary by Ovidio Oundjian B., 1979 Bogotá, Colombia “A painter of women... Graciela Gómez, working with difficult materials and techniques and always keeping in mind that she is a painter, has created a space for her models that irradiates, beats and enjoys the colors and transparencies, jumping ahead in passionate lines to close and complete profiles and hollows. But that space that speaks, that composition that vibrates, has a notorious tonality of silence that is full of significance. That which comes precisely from the inner portions of each of those feminine images that glance back at us as if they were distracted, sort of enclosed and lost in their own thoughts…” Zalacaín, “El Telégrafo,” 1979 Guayaquil
Caracas 79
1979
“In her works Graciela Gómez expresses a lyric symphony of color and overtones of sensible veils performed with extreme mastery.” Luis González Robles, Commissar of Art shows in Madrid. 1981 “I am pleased to introduce you to her magnificent works. There is a richness of colors, a huge desire for life, shapes that express themselves on their own as a reverberation of her intimacy and her universe.” R.A. Velázquez Álvarez, Director of Fine Arts at the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. 1982 “I am very pleased to see your work. You continue the tradition of painting of Colombia and that is a triumph of the solid tradition, above circumstances and the imperatives of that which can only be useful to fashion. Continue ahead!” José Gómez-Sicre, OAS, 1983 Washington “The formal elements of your works are worked upon with the strength of a clearly defined personality that sets you apart from most of the current artist. Likewise Graciela Gómez has achieved giving color a symbolic sense that coincides with her idealistic and transforming temperament. The world for her is not precisely a vision but a prophecy.” Félix Raffan Gómez, Colombian poet and critic. 1984 Compenetración. (fragment) Acrylic 126 x 92 cms 1983
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( ...) “The faces, the representations of her compositions have their own vitality, a personality with all its passions, aggressiveness or sweetness. What is the internal imperative that this preponderance of lines respond to and that are integrated into the works of Graciela Gómez? Without a doubt, to the inclination of the artist for some poetic physiology of threads scattered and intertwined in a face or a chest, granting her work a vital tremor powerfully human.” Eduardo Mendoza Varela, 1984 Bogotá, Colombia Eduardo Mendoza Varela, 1984 Bogotá, Colombia “Graciela, your pictorial work is something more than art. It is a phenomenon of water and light that trespasses forms breaking into a range of colors and lines... That is how God’s first thought, Creator of all arts, must have been. Manuel Zapata Olivella, 1984 Bogotá, Colombia “Graciela’s style seems to me very personal, characteristic and intimate. It could even be said that it is extremely particular. Without reference. It is as if she had been born with it and she will die with it, facts that practically never happen. Thus, I cannot find any connection of her style with that of other artists. I have already said that I have nothing to add to what has already been written about Graciela. Allow me then to a few more words: I respect and admire the artist that is faithful to himself during his/her whole life. There are so many that change with the wind. Graciela has remained and will continue to do so, as when she began: with a brush in the hand and one obsession, painting the mystery of life hidden within the human figure. I feel that she has achieved just that in a great measure.” Jorge Valencia Jaramillo, 1985 81
“This Colombian painter is tied to her people; she is their reflection and their projection. She feasts on (its) traditions as well as those of other cultures she contacts on her travels, with results that are not local but universal, and that she prefers to denominate from the Andean region. Latin American has many spokespersons from artistic fields, their voices and messages are heard in the international arena thanks to the promotion of the very personal and rich works as those of Graciela Gómez.” Taken from the script of the video shown in Caracas, Quito and Guayaquil in 1987.
Paisaje. (fragment) Acrylic 59 x 93 cms 1984
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“It would be hard not to arrive to the conclusion that Graciela Gómez has imposed on herself the obligation of having significance. Of finding the truth of shapes in the name of spirituality. The struggle of her spirit to express and show itself through her works can be clearly seen. Her wish of reaching “her truth,” even at the price of throwing down commonplace truths, is evident. Thus, through the values and perceptions related to transparencies, textures, certain magical idea of color in different atmospheres, develops ideal images of dreams. The naked bodies of women that seem to open themselves through transparencies and built with the elements of dreams, harbor echoes that sneak themselves into her paintings from faraway gardens. Graciela Gómez plays with created nature and endeavors herself into giving a touch of mystery to her most secret combinations. This is why she lets traditional shapes “contaminate themselves” with an atmosphere of vision. A sinuous and surrounding rhythm released upon the game of color arabesques that cannot be deemed as abstraction of forms, but that nonetheless grants it a new quality” Mario Rivero, Bogotá, Colombia 1990
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“Formal and aesthetic issues are clearly solved in the works of Graciela Gómez, and as a consequence of that, they follow a coherent and personal creative line, where humankind are first of all creators of their own reality.
Entrega
Series “Colombia Visión Ecológica” Acrylic 49 x 64 cms 1993
The lengthening of some figures, the chromatic and technical arbitrariness that make her very personal technique, the superposition of textures reflect the mastery of someone that has dedicated herself to research and the intimate creation of someone who loves beauty and simplicity. The figures of women, fluctuating in a tide of inbound and outbound colors, achieve converting painting in the subject matter and style into a vehicle of aesthetic purpose that is expressed in complete freedom, without the harmful interference of narrative. Being an artist of human figure, currently in place a tremendous commitment: as the critic Germán Rubiano states it, it requires the search for a style in midst of the most splendid and varied subject of the history of art; it demands the most absolute belief in humankind and up to a certain point it demands going against the current. The ones that accept these challenges are very few. Graciela Gómez is one of them.” Gloria Oviedo Cháves, Cultural Attaché of Hungary, International Association of Art Critics. 1992
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“Graciela Gómez is a universal artist. She irradiates Mediterranean happiness and vitality, made noble in the crystalline atmosphere of the Andes, defining both her inner self and the depth of its nature. The suggestive anthropocentrism of her works is vigorous and fascinating. The sublime virtues and ambitions of human existence are visually formulated in the works of Graciela Gómez in a monumental fashion, due to her personal style and technique, the morphological features of her artistic expression, her world of colors and her incredible capacity for composition that is innate in her. (…) We must believe in your redeeming force of culture, capable of creating and trusting in the pacific friendship of the peoples of the earth. We must believe and trust in the sincerity of the humans who tenderly smile to us from the paintings of Graciela Gómez, in the warmth of those limpid eyes that can be symbols of humankind’s faith and the future, as Picasso’s White Dove”. Torok Sándor, 1992 Budapest, Hungary
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Esfuerzo. (fragment)
Series “Colombia Visión Ecológica” Acrylic 49 x 64 cms 1993
“(...) her painting and technique have very defined geometrical lines, leading them to turn into an almost architectonic study of shape and language, paintings performed from “within the canvas” that start from points that slowly turn into images and content. Graciela Gomez’s acrylics on pressed canvases -- something unthinkable, incomprehensible and unequivocally Latin American for the Dutch public, are colors and expressions in struggle; two intrinsic elements in all the canvases of Graciela Gómez, who upon defining her compositions, finds herself in midst of subtle struggles that are both continuous and radical, as well as elegant and subtle. The coloring compositions she uses and the faces of the subject she paints are also elements in struggle. The coloring is strong, vital, vigorous, impetuous, magical, inviting and cozy... Her faces decidedly contrast with the feelings of her coloring since they express abandonment, indulgence, affliction, pain, melancholy and loneliness. Something incomprehensible for the public due to the fact that in the mentality of northern Europe, the use of colors such as orange, yellow, red, like green are immediately associated and happily convey in themselves the enthusiasm, the joy, the warmth and the radiant sun of the south of the continent, always present in the provisional landscapes of the south of France or the multicolored festivals of Spain and Portugal.... Suffering, melancholy and loneliness in Protestant and Calvinists contexts of the north of Europe are not colorful; they are gray, ocher, uniform, pale... just like the rain, fog and cold that are so characteristic of these countries. Even so and due to these “incongruent” and almost “incomprehensible” themes, where happiness and pain are intimately linked, the canvases of Graciela Gómez have become a point of fascination in the eyes of the Dutch public.” Jonathan Benavides, Galerie Gaffelaer, 1992 Breda, the Netherland
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“(...) the works of Graciela Gómez are very good. She is a very good painter and from the moment I saw her works for the first time I became very interested, not only because of their strength but for the universal character they have. She is a Latin American painter… very Latin American because of her themes; another aspect is her strength; he has innate strength. The Latin American soul is ever present in the works of Graciela Gómez, and very vividly so.” A.B., Director of FIAL, Brussels and of the Andrés Art Gallery, 1994 Antwerp, Belgium
Tríptico. (fragment)
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Series “Colombia Visión Ecológica” Acrylic 220 x 360 cms 1993
Reposo Oil 2004
“The works of Graciela Gómez are acknowledged in Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, the United States, Denmark, Hungary, France, Ukraine, Balkan countries and Spain.
She has developed a particular artistic style by creating intertwined geometrical lines that interact with the different painting strokes, thus creating intricate images. The spectators perceive the harmonious composition established in the forms and colors, as a characteristic feature of her works that creates the illusion of multiple and simultaneous figures in the same space. The painting style of Graciela Gómez is full of content and technique. Graciela Gómez has been commissioned to execute a number of murals in public sites. The most recent one being “the Historical Palace Museum of the National Police” in Bogotá.” By Post Staff 2005
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(…) “The show is an infinite dance that can be seen in each of the planes formed by her compositions, where sight goes from being a simple sensory element into registering movement and vital forms that suggest within a strong aesthetic sensation, a line and use of expressive geometrical elements. Carried out under worthy studies of color and technique, this art show aims at submerging us in the majestic jungle of our surrounding historical and natural memories, making the mobile magic within it naked bare, along with its genius loci or spirit of the place.” (…) Stefannia Doria, Curator Bolivarian Museum of Contemporary Art 2010. Santa Marta, Colombia
Descendimiento
Oil 100 x 86 cms 2004
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More Information
Graciela Gómez “AMERICA, AMERICA” (Vídeo) COLARTE - Graciela Gómez (URL)
Translated from Spanish to English by Morris Strong
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The whole life in the Art
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