As a writer, Viaro is currently working on abstract short stories, but it's abstract as an idea that influences him: "In my working room I’m surrounded by abstract paintings by Guido Viaro," he says. "I love all Kandinsky, perhaps for his previous studies of proportions and colors. I love Paul Klee for his fake innocence. I love Jorge Luis Borges for his short story “The Aleph”. I love Ingmar Bergman for his film “The Seventh Seal”. I love Franz Schubert for his quartet “The death and the maiden”."
He continues by showing how it's not just about words, sculpture, or oil either: "I also had directed a short-length documentary about the Brazilian artist Jair Mendes, who started painting figurative and slowly changed into abstract. I do like abstract in many forms of art, cinema, dance."
He continues by showing how it's not just about words, sculpture, or oil either: "I also had directed a short-length documentary about the Brazilian artist Jair Mendes, who started painting figurative and slowly changed into abstract. I do like abstract in many forms of art, cinema, dance."
Viaro the grandfather graces Viaro the writer's book I recently came across this abstract exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) called "Variations: Conversations in and around Abstract Painting" and it got me thinking about how art affects us. Being a painter of both the figurative and abstract, I have sought out various artists to discuss art in our lives. The LACMA exhibit focuses on abstract painting, but really, do conversations need to be only about that? After all, even though I'm a painter I'm strongly influenced by Ernest Hemingway's starkness.
Art influences across fields, so I chose as my first subject Guido Viaro who has published 12 novels to date and is also the grandson of the Italian-Brazilian painter of the same name. Viaro is also the director of the museum that houses a large number of his grandfather's works. For disclosure's sake, I exhibited at the museum in May 2014. You can view Viaro's site here for more information: Guido Viaro.
Art influences across fields, so I chose as my first subject Guido Viaro who has published 12 novels to date and is also the grandson of the Italian-Brazilian painter of the same name. Viaro is also the director of the museum that houses a large number of his grandfather's works. For disclosure's sake, I exhibited at the museum in May 2014. You can view Viaro's site here for more information: Guido Viaro.
Iglesia en La Serena - Oil on Canvas (2012) Abstract art isn't about the beauty as much as it is about the idea. In my mind this why abstract art is so misunderstood; one needs to know the artist and his or her history in order to understand the brilliance or lack thereof of the piece. "I think that above all you got to have something to say, it doesn’t matter the language or the tools you use for it," says Viaro, and I couldn't agree more.
The unfortunate thing about abstract art is that in order to understand it all, one needs to study it all, which is really just a recipe for overcrowded art history departments at the university level. Besides, as much as I think art history is important to the overall curriculum, no one wants a majority of the population to be running around with art history PhDs. Art is important, but so is eating and doing business.
This leaves us with the idea that abstract art must compete with figurative art. Not only does one need something to say, but one also needs to produce something that stimulates. With "Iglesia en La Serena" I wanted to create a piece that showed the beauty of a small church in La Serena, Chile while at the same time showing how muddy religion is. It appears to be a figurative piece, but it's definitely abstract in idea and design. It is both one of my most popular and least liked works of art, as well as one of the first to sell. I have found that understanding the painting both changes opinions (in both directions for that matter) and changes nothing at all. It completely depends on the person.
"The fact of doing an abstract or a cubist it doesn’t necessarily make you a modern artist or a good one. It’s hard to say why you like some abstract artists and hate others, I think it has something to do with proportions and combination of colors, that are used as tools to express feelings," Viaro continues.
The unfortunate thing about abstract art is that in order to understand it all, one needs to study it all, which is really just a recipe for overcrowded art history departments at the university level. Besides, as much as I think art history is important to the overall curriculum, no one wants a majority of the population to be running around with art history PhDs. Art is important, but so is eating and doing business.
This leaves us with the idea that abstract art must compete with figurative art. Not only does one need something to say, but one also needs to produce something that stimulates. With "Iglesia en La Serena" I wanted to create a piece that showed the beauty of a small church in La Serena, Chile while at the same time showing how muddy religion is. It appears to be a figurative piece, but it's definitely abstract in idea and design. It is both one of my most popular and least liked works of art, as well as one of the first to sell. I have found that understanding the painting both changes opinions (in both directions for that matter) and changes nothing at all. It completely depends on the person.
"The fact of doing an abstract or a cubist it doesn’t necessarily make you a modern artist or a good one. It’s hard to say why you like some abstract artists and hate others, I think it has something to do with proportions and combination of colors, that are used as tools to express feelings," Viaro continues.
Kandinsky - Improvisation 3 - Oil on Canvas (1909) - Centre Georges Pompidou Viaro, as a writer, is influenced by many different types of abstract art: "In my working room I’m surrounded by abstract paintings by Guido Viaro," he says. "I love all Kandinsky, perhaps for his previous studies of proportions and colors. I love Paul Klee for his fake innocence. I love Jorge Luis Borges for his short story “The Aleph”. I love Ingmar Bergman for his film “The Seventh Seal”. I love Franz Schubert for his quartet “The death and the maiden”."
And that's not all: "I also had directed a short length documentary about the Brazilian artist Jair Mendes, who started painting figurative and slowly changed into abstract. I do like abstract in many forms of art, cinema, dance."
And that's not all: "I also had directed a short length documentary about the Brazilian artist Jair Mendes, who started painting figurative and slowly changed into abstract. I do like abstract in many forms of art, cinema, dance."
Viaro sees the idea of abstract becoming more common, too. I asked him if he saw any trends and he replied, "I do see. Not only in abstract art, but everything is becoming simpler and more shallow. You have to produce fast to sell it." In our modern world of technology and self-marketing, he's right. There are many people creating art these days in all forms, and it's becoming more difficult to get noticed. Not only that, but as he noted above one must say something as well as produce. I believe this is because original beauty is becoming harder to create. In my opinion art needs to come from within more and more, which makes it more individualistic. And as we become better educated as a whole, maybe we also become more aware of how little we really know. Minimalism is a great example of this.
But that's not all. Sometimes its just about being smart. As Viaro says, one needs to beat the system to be not only understood, but recognized as well: "And if you use some politically correct subjects, you can be helped to get into the system, even though it looks like you’re acting against it."
But that's not all. Sometimes its just about being smart. As Viaro says, one needs to beat the system to be not only understood, but recognized as well: "And if you use some politically correct subjects, you can be helped to get into the system, even though it looks like you’re acting against it."
City II - Oil on Canvas (2012)
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