Epitalamio 1968

Carlos Merida made this artwork, Epitalamio, with what looks like colored pencils, creating soft color fields that feel carefully constructed. Look at how he’s building these shapes out of line, tone, and hue, making something both flat and spatial at once. There's a tension between the graphic, linear elements, especially that black grid, and the almost watercolor-like blending in the colored areas. It’s like he's setting up a push and pull, a conversation between structure and fluidity. Do you see how the black circle floats there, almost daring you to find its center? That circle, along with the grid, feels like it’s trying to contain something that wants to flow and drift. Merida was clearly in conversation with the European avant-garde. I’m thinking of how someone like Paul Klee or maybe even Sonia Delaunay played with geometry and color, but with an eye towards their own cultural histories. It’s a reminder that art is never created in a vacuum; it’s always talking to other art, wrestling with ideas, and finding its own voice in the mix.