|
BRUNO FONSECA, MY FIRST GALLERY SHOW, was alas a bittersweet one. Bruno became gravely ill and died only a few months after the show. Sad and tragic, obviously, and not the least because he had such a promising career as an artist. In this case, I felt it would be worth showing the entire show. War dominates the entire world today. I see this in BrunoВ’s work. Also, there are a couple of Fonsecas I personally own. -JOHN- THE FIRST THING THAT STRIKES YOU ABOUT Bruno FosecaВ’s War Murals is their subject. Each of the four large paintings in the series forces confrontation with an aspect of violence and destruction: a blazing building, an angry crowd, a cluster of mourners, a tank looming in a city square or isolated on a featureless plain. Figures huddled together in stage set-like spaces; they embrace to comfort one another or cradle the dead and wounded. Angry men stretch out their arms in outrage. Some struggle, other collapse, and still others sit passively, as though overwhelmed. ItВ’s impossible to say precisely what is happening in these disturbing pictures. Except for the tanks, which places us, if not unequivocably in the present, at least in the second half of the 20th century, the images are timeless, universal. What comes through most clearly, and seems of far greater moments than any particular allusion, is the artistВ’s anger and despair. 1 (1) Karen Wilkin, New York, December1993 |
|
