Brote 

Curator: This is “Brote” by Esteban Frances, an evocative piece rendered in oil paint, heavily textured with matter-painting techniques. The creation date is unknown, allowing for some compelling speculative readings. What’s your initial impression? Editor: Viscerally, I am struck by the oppressive, almost violent texture. The brown tones mixed with that sunset-blood red gives it a suffocating feel. You can practically smell the oil paint and medium – I would be interested to examine its build-up. Curator: I read a deeply rooted anxiety here – look at how the forms, ostensibly landscapes or even figurative, are tangled and almost consumed by the textured brushstrokes. There’s a sense of internal struggle, a kind of psychic battle played out across the canvas, not unlike some existentialist philosophy that suggests a breakdown of the Self. Editor: And I see that materiality speaking to issues of class and access – the relative cost of oils, the physical labor required. There's the social dimension embedded in the very act of manipulating that pigment, even before the application to the canvas itself. Matter painting moves oil beyond an image medium. It gives importance to texture, weight, and even the smell! Curator: You are right. What could all of this laborious activity suggest about the human condition. Considering historical context, we can see that this matter-painting embodies certain cultural anxieties about the concept of modernity. Are the dark shades a symptom of political distress that marks how artists give testament of these feelings. Editor: So it’s interesting how what might seem like a purely aesthetic choice– the heavy impasto – is fundamentally linked to labor. Each globule of paint becomes an evidence of the act. What kind of painting method does he employ, is there research on the creation of the artwork to evaluate what the process looks like in detail. This has to inform us on the meaning of the picture Curator: That focus on the process reveals something about the relationship of artist and medium in that moment. I suppose the most interesting aspect about art pieces that do not have assigned dates, are the potential connections we can built with our modern interpretations and social understandings, opening a vast world of potential reflections. Editor: A vast world of reflections built on tangible substance, quite literally. Thank you for guiding us through this fascinating experience! Curator: My pleasure, a rich painting! Thank you too.