Woman (the Dream) 1964

This is Antonio Lopez Garcia’s painting, “Woman (the Dream),” made with oil on board. Garcia is known for his intense realism, and that quality is immediately apparent here, in the woman’s form, the texture of the sheets, the decorative bed frame. But it’s worth noting that the artist’s commitment to representation comes at the expense of speed. Garcia is famous for working on paintings over many years, building up the surfaces slowly, layer by layer. This painstaking process means that the works have a very particular relationship to time. They are not exactly snapshots, but rather, distillations of the world. You might even say that he treats oil paint as though it were clay, patiently coaxing it into being. This kind of investment—this labor—demands that we give the painting our close attention. It is not casual work, and asks not to be casually seen. It is a world unto itself.