Video: Series of still lifes "Tropical Arrangements" by Rafael D'Alo
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Brazilian photographer Rafael D'Alo combines the southern vitality of his native Rio de Janeiro with the European rigor of Dutch genre painting in his Tropical Arrangements still life series.
The phrase "little Dutchmen" can cause a slight nervous tic even in the most conscientious and enthusiastic student of an art university. If this statement seems to you an exaggeration, take a stroll through the Tent Hall of the Hermitage or the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and try to tell the difference between Peter Claes's still life and the still lifes of Gerrit Willems Heda and Willem Kalf.
Dutch masters of household painting of the 17th century considered still life a "small genre" of landscape and treated it with the same enthusiasm with which they painted everyday scenes and rural landscapes. The still life genre provided an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the mastery of detailed rendering of textures, materials and nuances of natural light. Food in all the variety that a nearby grocery market could offer, laid out on the table in a meticulously organized mess, silver cutlery, intricate draperies and a sea of flowers - this is a summary of the history of Dutch still life from the 16th and 18th centuries.
Almost all still lifes of that period contain a moralizing allegory, usually - the transience of everything earthly and the inevitability of death (Vanitas). Flowers wither, birds and fish become food, food decays, and silver will not save the soul of a sinner. With this approach, it is not surprising that most of the paintings are dark in color and leave a depressing impression.
Brazilian photographer Rafael D'Alo clearly did not skip art history lectures at the Santa Monica College of Art. His fascination with the aesthetics of Dutch and Flemish painting was fully expressed in the photographs of the Tropical Arrangements series, skillfully imitating the compositional and lighting features of classic still lifes.
However, if you live and work in Rio de Janeiro, the decadent mood and existential quest of the European type inevitably come into conflict with the influence of the vibrant and predominantly cheerful visual culture of Brazil. The effect of this combination is entertaining: still lifes composed of tropical fruits, flowers and vegetables look as if Gauguin, Rousseau and Peter Claes decided to arrange a joint photo project.
Raphael D'Alo divided into three sub-series, differing in color, lighting and composition. The most “Dutch” of them is Tropical Arrangements I with a black background and a feeling of “overcrowding” the frame. the style is more reminiscent of French impressionism or interior photography in the spirit of Ikea, and the inspiration for which is distinguished by a deliberately formal composition and unexpected objects was probably the work of the Art Nouveau period, in particular, by surrealist artists.
In a similar manner, Klaus Enrique Gerdes, D'Alo's American colleague, collects copies of paintings by the famous Italian mannerist Giuseppe Arcimboldo from real vegetables and fruits.
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