MALU STEWART. WORKS 1997-2014

WATER GARDENSPresentationMilan Ivelic


Green LagoonAcrylic and paste on canvas850 x 200 cm.18 modules 100 x 94,5 cm.2009.


2010-2011


Malu Stewart

WATER GARDENS

Embroidered with limpiapas perforated Cholguán. 200 x 100. Cm. House of Propellers, London. 2010

AGUAS CALMAS Embroidery with pipe cleaners on wood.200 x 100 cm .House of Propellers , London.2010.



SUMMER TIME SpRiNG TiMEEmbroidery with pipe cleaners on wood.200 x 100 cm .House of Propellers , London.2010.



AZULEmbroidery with pipe cleaners on wood.200 x 100 cm .2010.


Individual exhibition, House of Propellers, London. 2010 A LONG SUMMER


Malu Stewart

Lotus flower. Pasta and acrylic on canvas .. 200 x 100 cm. 2 modules 100 x 100 cm 2010.

LOTUS FLOWERpaste and acrylic on canvas200 x 100 cm. 2 modules 100 x 100 cm. 2010.


Phillips de Pury and Saatchi Gallery. London, 2011.


GREEN FiNGERSMalu StewartARTFUL BORROWiNG: REFLECTiONS, TiES AND WATER LiLiES

By Claudia Campaña*

While discussion surrounding ecological decline persists (for instance on denuded rainforests or ozone layer depletion), Malu Stewart offers the viewer a new instalment of her series of studies which, in this context, may be termed a reflection on and assessment of green areas. This time round, she has chosen to display her latest, large scale works at the Sala Gasco Arte Contemporáneo, an exhibition showroom set right in the heart of Santiago (a grey city rarely graced with blue sky and of few parks leaving much tree planting to do). Located centrally and maybe owing to the contrast, Stewart’s works insolently evoke pristine nature in all its splendour affording passersby a haven.

From the hive of colour that is crucial in her works it is clear in her workshop the artist bowed to her chromatic calling long ago. She perseveres on landscape formats and is driven to sorting out issues concerning the possibilities and complexities of the picture plane. It is hardly surprising then to learn she has become obsessed with the work of Claude Monet (1840-1926) and, with the paradigms of modernity entering crisis several decades ago, shamelessly and without any wrenches of guilt, borrows and appropriates from the icons of the most radical of all the impressionist painters: the water lilies.

In Stewart’s recent work there is not just the mere faint acknowledging nod, but a very clear allusion to Monet’s Grandes Décorations, the extraordinary explorations the artist undertook from 1914 to 1919. Up to this point, Monet had focused on ordinary, domestic-scale paintings for private collectors. But in 1914 he declared “an urge to paint”1 and embarked on an ambitious project resulting in more than forty huge canvases, of which 22 are on permanent display at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris. The Monet “decorations” are nothing less than the forerunner of abstract expressionism; with the change of format came the change in execution. They are the very essence of the drama of colour and pigment, proof of the many hours spent musing over an aqueous surface teeming with water lilies and the most resounding testimony to his phenomenal ability to translate oil into an infinite variety of water-borne reflections. Monet painted several canvases simultaneously, dragging across his bright pigment-laden brush. At other times he stained with a quick dab or rubbed out to mimic his observations of multiple patterns of colours the transparency and reflections of trees, clouds, sky and flowers produced in the large pond he built beside his house.


Malu Stewart has studied and scrutinised at length the “visual grammar” these paintings hold. She first saw Monet’s “Decoraciones” in person at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in 1993 - although, as she readily admits, she wasn’t particularly taken by them2. It was on a trip to Africa (February 2007) on the shores of Lake Naivasha (Kenya) where she reencountered water lilies and became fascinated by the aquatic plants once revered in Egypt – just look at the lotus-adorned capitals of their temples. Later, Stewart visited Kew Gardens in London with its magnificent fountains and giant leaved water lilies (see photo). She then returned to the works of Monet, but this time was moved at the ability of the artist to immortalize these aquatic flowers in oils. Since 2007, the artist has been on a non-stop investigation, so much so that while preparing for her exhibition, “Jardín de agua (Water garden)”, November 2009 - January 2010,3 at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago, she went to France just to visit l’Orangerie and the Musée Marmottan in Paris and to Giverny to get to know the house of the painter in situ. With these images in mind Stewart’s hands have painted, dyed, woven, cut and paste to borrow, rework to seek new meaning in Monet’s contributions to the field of visual arts.

“Dedos verdes” is a really fitting title for this exhibition. Green Fingers (or Green Thumb in North America) in two words sums up an ability to prepare, sow and make plants thrive. Stewart has worked incessantly to make the picture surface “bloom” with new chromatic proposals and textures. The label “Green fingers” also highlights the painstaking dexterity behind each of the works in this exhibition, in which the artist appears to be on a quest to fuse art and craft.

“The pond” (2012) is the most striking and radical work full of communication with and visual references to “Green reflections”, one of the panoramic set at l’Orangerie. As is the case with Monet’s painting, owing to its enormous format it was clearly intended to invade the viewer’s space; to be appreciated at a distance. And while Stewart has been paraphrasing the water lilies for the past six years this is the first installation of the series. The artist has applied water-based enamel to one of the walls of the Sala Gasco and then put motifs encapsulating characteristic reflections in water on top this blue expanse. Finally, on the flat, frontal planes she has deployed around 160 textured reliefs evoking the famous lotus with its respective leaves, all of which are bolted to the wall. These colourful swarms have been achieved by embroidering perforated hardboard plaques with clean, variegate strands. Though small, these mounds, by their sheer presence and number, command all one’s attention. Stewart has only used this technique once before in elliptical “islands” where flowers and leaves float perceptibly in a two-dimensional colour field. These motifs capture the forceful texture of Monet’s brushstrokes with their dense impastos.

“Poza Azul” – (Blue Pool) (2011) also borrows, but this time it is a painting executed in acrylic on canvas, consisting of 20 modules each one 115 x 110 cm. As in “The Pond”, here Stewart also shows a willingness to renounce borrowing verbatim (in terms of appropriation), since many of the original qualities have been sacrificed, for example, the “spontaneous brushstrokes” giving that sense of speedy


execution. Malu Stewart summarizes to simplify, reduce and capture the essence of the Impressionist painter’s works. In other words, she focuses on the importance of the pictorial surface, on the flatness of the support and the notion of decorative painting. The work could well be used as a wallpaper design. With no visible horizon there is no exploration of spatial depth, as Vincent van Gogh said, “colours take on their own meaning”.

In short, these two works resemble large windows with a view that calls on one to re-establish nature’s culture and its landscape, as well as to value the creative domains of the past. Consistent with postmodern artistic practices, Malu Stewart centres her revisionary output on visual discourses of other work (Claude Monet), without necessarily falling into nostalgia or absolute mimicry. It is clear she engages in a friendly dialogue with the Impressionist tradition and enjoys (re)presenting to the viewer her simplified rendition of the liquid, chromatic and floating qualities of the maestro’s water lilies, but through a lavish yet meticulous technique all of her own.

Santiago de Chile, May 2012

1 Hayes Tucker, Paul, et. al. Monet in the 20th Century. Essex: Yale University Press, 1999, p. 192.

2 Campaña, Claudia. En entrevista con la artista, Santiago de Chile, 6 de mayo de 2012.

3 Ivelic, Milan. “Presentación”. Jardín de Agua, Malu Stewart. Santiago: Quebecor World, 2009.

*Claudia Campaña is Doctor in Theory and History of Contemporary Art, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España. Master (M.A.) in History of Art, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, United Kingdom. Licenciada en Teoría e Historia del Arte, Universidad de Chile. Currently is Professor of theory and history of art at the Art School of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Has written several essays and books including: Adolfo Couve: una lección de pintura (2002) and El arte de la cita. Velázquez en la obra de Bru y Cienfuegos (2008).


GREEN FINGERS ExhibiAon Contemporary Art Gallery Sala Gasco. 2012

The Pond, mural 10.50 x 2 mt. GREEN FiNGERS ( DEDOS VERDES )Exhibition Contemporary Art Gallery Sala Gasco. 2012


ThE pOND ( EL ESTANqUE ) Mural 10.50 x 2 m.Embroidered figures with pipe cleaners on wall painted. SALA 1.


Detail Pond


AGUAS Embroidery with pipe cleaners on wood.200 x 50 cm .


GREEN FiNGERS ( DEDOS VERDES ) Exhibition. SALA 2.


Mural for Molymet, 2012 MURAL FOR MOLyMET Paste with acrylic on canvas . 25 moduls of 115 x 100 cm each modul.5 x 5,80 m .2012.


Flower Narcisa. Pasta and acrylic on canvas. 200 x 100 cm. 2 modules 100 x 100 cm 2013.

FLOR NARCiSA Paste with acrylic on canvas.200 x 100 cm. 2 modules 100 x 100 cm2013.


MALU STEWART1962, Santiago de Chile. 1997 Taller con Eugenio Dittborn.1992-1995 Post-graduate in Painting. The Slade School of Fine Art ,Londres.1990 Licenciatura en Arte, Universidad Católica de Chile. EXpOSiCiONES iNDiViDUALES SELECCiONADAS 2012 “Dedos Verdes “, Sala Gasco Arte contemporáneo. Santiago.2010 “A long Summer”, House of Propellers, Londres. UK2009 “Jardín de Agua”, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes.2005-2006 “Reflejos de lo Irreal, Individuales simúltaneas, Galería Stuart.2004 “Sentir la visualidad” Galería Universidad Católica de Temuco.1997 “Mecánica del Paisaje”, Exposición simultánea en Galería Arte Actual y Galería del Grabado.1994 “¿Es esto acerca de un cactus?”, Galería Arte Actual. EXpOSiCiONES COLECTiVAS SELECCiONADAS

2013 Mano Factura, Centro Cultural Palacio la Moneda. Santiago.2012 33 DEGREES SOUTH: CONTEMPORARY ART FROM CHILE, EB&Flow Gallery, Londres,UK.2011 “Tectonic Shift”, Phillips de Pury y Saatchi Gallery, Londres. UK2010 “Mes geométrico”, Galeria Isabel Aninat.2010 Pais Geométrico, Itinerante , Instituto Cultural de Las Condes, Santiago.2007 Imágenes Coloidales, Galería Artespacio.2006 Colectiva, Galería Alejandra Von Hartz, Miami, USA. Multiplicación, Museo de arte Contemporáneo.2005 5, Galería Stuart.2005 Making Time, Blanton Museum Of Art, University Of Texas at Austin, USA:2004 Premio Concurso Gasco Cilindros pintados, Sala Gasco2005 5, Galería Stuart.2005 Making Time, Blanton Museum Of Art, University Of Texas at Austin, USA2004 Premio Concurso Gasco Cilindros pintados, Sala Gasco.2003 “Tensión Superficial” Museo de Arte Contemporáneo. “Configuraciones Improbables” Extremo Centro, MAC. “Sub-sole” Espacio Cú.Mu.Lo. Guadalajara, México.


2001 “Personal / Impersonal” Galería Animal. “SIART 2001” Museo Nacional de Arte La Paz, Bolivia.2000 Chilenos en Nueva York. Montserrat Gallery, New York. Laboratorio 4. Centro Cultural Balmaceda 1215.1999 “Naturaleza Muerta¨, Galería Marlborough. “Salón de Primavera”, Hoffmann’s House, Santiago, Chile. “Vientos de Chile” Galería Vasby Konsthall, Estocolmo, Suecia.1997 Festivales Internacionales de Lima. Lima, Perú. 9 na.Trienal de Nueva Dehli, India.1996 V Bienal Internacional de Pintura Cuenca, Ecuador. Mención de Honor.1995 “Summer Shows 1995”, The Slade School of Fine Art, Londres. “Natural Forces” Reed`s Wharf Gallery, Londres.

BECAS y pREMiOS

2011 2do. Premio . Fundación Los Aromos. Galeria Patricia Ready.2008 Beca FONDART2004 1er lugar Concurso MOP , Mural en Liceo B 8 Vallenar.2003 Premio Concurso Gasco Cilindros Pintados.2002 Beca FONDART.1999 Primer Premio al mejor expositor. Galería La Sala. Concurso “Palestina vista por Chile, Belén 2000”. Mención Honor.1998 Premio Nacional a la Calidad de los Servicios Públicos 1998.1996 V Bienal Internacional de Pintura Cuenca, Ecuador. Mención de Honor.1995 Cyril Sweett Award. Londres.1994-1995 Beca Presidente de la República, Chile.1992-1993 Beca The British Council.

COLECCiONES Ramon Sauma colección privada. Chile. Colección Privada de Juan Yarur, Chile. Museo de Artes Visuales, MAVI, Santiago de Chile. Jack S. Blanton Museum Of Art, University Of Texas at Austin, EEUU. Compañia Cervecerias Unidas S. A. ABN AMRO Bank, Sao Paulo Museo de Arte Moderno de Chiloé, Castro, Chile.


SELECCiÓN DE pUBLiCACiONES

2012 Pintores Contemporáneos de Chile, Ediciones Galeria Cecilia Palma.2012 “Dedos Verdes”, Sala de Arte Contemporáneo GASCO.2011 “Tectonic Shift,” Contemporary Art .Juan Yarur Collection.2010 “Revisión Técnica”. 100 pintores chilenos. Ocho libros.2009 “Jardín de Agua”, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago. 2008 Laboratorios , Centro Cultural Balmaceda 1215 Decada años 2000.2006 Multiplication. Libro-catalogo MAC, Santiago. Pag, 107.2006 Pintura en Chile 1950- 2005. El Mercurio.2003 “ Tensión Superficial”, Catalogo Museo de Arte Contemporáneo,2003.2003 Hoffmann´s House. Memoria de Exposiciones 2000-2003, Santiago. 2002 Extremo Centro, 7 espacios de arte contemporaneo, MAC, Santiago2002 “Naturaleza Muerta”, Libro El Mercurio2000-2001 Libro-catálogo, Galería Animal.1999 “100 Artistas pintan su autorretrato”, Libro El Mercurio.1997 Libro-catálogo, 9 na.Trienal de Nueva Dehli, India1996 Libro-catálogo, Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador.


MALU STEWART. WORKS 1997-2014

Documents

Transcript of MALU STEWART. WORKS 1997-2014