A propos of a painting by Ricardo Casado

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Convinced that contemporary art has become a visual discourse reflecting and straining the identity relationship of poetics in use – thus demonstrating that artistic expressions are more powerful than social polemics - we can appreciate how a new aesthetic paradigm has been created, which allows us to see art from a more acute and impacting scope, resolved in its wide and diverse sensory expression.

 

In this sense, we observe how the visual effect created by Ricardo Casado is integrated. He gives us an interesting proposal within the collective exhibition organized by the Marquis Hotel (1100 Brickell, Miami) since December 4, 2018.

 

His work Horizonte (Skyline), a pictorial mural of 48 x 144 inches, in oil on canvas, stands out. In it we appreciate how Casado assumed his preference for large formats. He conceives it as a large diptych in which he seeks to synthesize the external atmosphere of the building. The conception of this painting focuses on how to formulate a futuristic vision of its environment, by representing what could be seen in the future from the 50th floor of this headquarters, after the construction of the surrounding buildings.

 

As an added element, in the formal perception of this mural, an installation of rear lights is used which, when activated, causes a change in its colors and, surprisingly, the piece assumes the appearance of a stained glass window.

 

This painting is located in the main lobby, and it appears to welcome visitors who access this beautiful site. Those willing to appreciate the suggestive architectural rendition of the surroundings of this building can come and enjoy this unique artistic expression.

 

In his aesthetics, Ricardo assumes different disciplines and creates different statutes to express himself through images. Art allows him to translate the poetic representation of reality as a symbolic projection of high artistic connotations, with a reflective slant, which tries to move the visitor. This magical relationship is based on the potential, talent and sensitivity of the author, which allow him to capture and reproduce in his work the dissimilar environmental details of that area. 

 

Horizonte is a kind of balance of his career, characterized by a broad, diverse and rigorous artistic discourse, which is inserted into a poetic worldview permeated by an attitude that enhances the irreducible expansion of his inner world, thanks to the smooth plasticity that he imparts the pigment. Interested in composing his metaphors of the environment, his features correspond to a trace derived from his persistence and obsessions. 

 

Numerous influences have influenced his artistic discourse, which today allow him to describe the environment of a surrounding area given his fertile imaginary, marked by the recreation of the location from a series of attributes, as well as by the expression of a simple geometry, which contributes to shake visitors from their first visual contact thanks to the expression of subtleties, quality and rigor, permeated by a fine sensitivity and an unquestionable talent.

Hortensia Montero

(Havana, 1951) Master in History of Art, University of Havana. Graduated from the School of Museology, Louvre Museum; of Contemporary General Museology, Paris I University; of Documentation and Archive, UNESCO-ICOM Documentation Center, Paris. Since 1975 she is curator of Contemporary Art, MNBA. She was awarded the Annual Cultural Research Prize 2001, 2002 and 2003, Juan Marinello Center and National Prize for Curators, 2003 and 2006. Author of the book The 70’s: A Bridge for the Ruptures. Assistant professor at the University of Havana.

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