{"id":891,"date":"2013-04-07T20:53:50","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T00:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/~reviewing\/?page_id=891"},"modified":"2013-04-07T20:53:50","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T00:53:50","slug":"concealed-spaces-on-display-at-frost","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/?page_id=891","title":{"rendered":"‘Concealed Spaces’ on display at Frost"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted April 7, 2013<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By MELISSA CASTILLO<\/p>\n

Francisco Goya\u2019s famous painting, \u201cThe Third of May 1808: The Executions on Principe Pio Hill,\u201d portrays soldiers pointing their guns at a group of men as they plead for mercy, while bodies surrounded by blood lie next to them.<\/p>\n

\""The<\/a>

“The Uninhabited Garden” by Ballester<\/p><\/div>\n

This is a gruesome and historic portrayal of the Spanish resistance to Napoleon\u2019s armies during the Peninsular War.<\/p>\n

Contemporary Spanish photographer Jose Manuel Ballester actually dared to dramatically alter this monumental piece of artwork.<\/p>\n

And he earned respect for it through his collection \u201cConcealed Spaces.\u201d
\nBallester\u2019s depiction of Goya\u2019s painting, which he titled \u201c3 of May,\u201d expels all forms of life that existed in the original, leaving only a glowing light that was half covered by the soldiers, its shadow and the pool of blood.<\/p>\n

\""The<\/a>

“The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Bosch<\/p><\/div>\n

He does this with several other works by notable painters including Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Diego Velazquez, Hieronymus Bosch, Claude Lorrain and Johannes Vermeer.<\/p>\n

The collection of 24 large-scaled photos is displayed at the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University\u2019s Modesto A. Maidique Campus. This is the award-winning photographer\u2019s first individual exhibition in the United States.<\/p>\n

His originality was acknowledged in 2010 when he received the National Photography Prize granted by the Ministry of Culture of Spain for his distinguishing representation of architectural space and light and his contribution to contemporary photographic techniques.<\/p>\n

His technique with this collection is to first take photos of the original paintings, which are in the Museo de Prado in Madrid. Then he digitally removes any people, animals, or action and fills in their absence by adding to the background using Photoshop and similar programs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also clear from comparing the original painting and the final photograph that he edited the contrast level to create a more dramatic effect between light and dark. This is seen in \u201cArtist\u2019s Studio,\u201d which derived from Johannes Vermeer\u2019s \u201cThe Art of Painting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The curtain that hangs in the first layer of the photo is almost entirely black and lacks the intricate details seen in the original painting. Contrasting this against a bright light shining from behind the curtain enhances the depth in the photo and almost looks as though the objects are protruding off of the canvas.<\/p>\n

By getting rid of the usual subjects, in this case an artist and a woman modeling for him, there is more appreciation given to the architectural interior. His goal is to rid the paintings of any narrative and discover new layers open for interpretation in nature and architecture. He intensifies the significance of the backdrops in these historic paintings and transforms them to being the actual subjects.<\/p>\n

The lack of human subjects in some of the photos of nature is surprisingly breathtaking. For instance, \u201cPort in Ostia,\u201d based on Claude Lorrain\u2019s \u201cPort of Ostia with the Embarkation of St. Paula,\u201d doesn\u2019t have crowds of ships along the docks and it doesn\u2019t have crowds of people on the docks.<\/p>\n

Erasing these factors and leaving only a couple gondolas instills the desire to jump into the photo for the tranquility. Ballester\u2019s technique enunciates the intrinsic beauty of the scenes that can get lost behind so many details.<\/p>\n

His photos can also create an opposite effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cLas Meninas\u201d by Diego Velazquez once seemed like a royal play date, but Ballester transformed it into a haunted mansion. He creates an ominous effect by darkening the extravagant room, ridding it of any furniture, and allowing just a bit of light to peep through the door in the distance, as though a ghoulish creature is about to walk through.<\/p>\n

The exhibition is held in the Stella & J. Burton Orr Pavilion and the William R. Kenan, Jr. Grand Gallery, which connect to each other. The rooms look exceptionally vast since the paintings lie flat on the walls and the wooden floor is empty. Because of this, the lifelessness that exists in the majority of the photos is reflected in reality. There is the likelihood that Ballester was aiming to portray fleeting life and loneliness through the eviction of people and action in the photos.<\/p>\n

His collection began with the loss of a close friend. To honor her, he erased all life from her favorite painting \u201cThe Annunciation\u201d by Fra Angelico. He named it \u201cPlace for an Annunciation: Homage to Jocelyne.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the majority of the photos are either of rooms, exterior architecture or nature, \u201cThe Uninhabited Garden,\u201d derived from Hieronymus Bosch\u2019s \u201cThe Garden of Earthly Delights,\u201d stands apart from the rest. This is the only piece that seems surreal even with the removal of life and it is the one that has the most life to erase.<\/p>\n

There are tiny naked people all over the garden, giant fish and clams, horses, birds of all sizes, mermaids and a pig in a nun\u2019s habit. And even though Ballester erased all their nonsensical activities, the photo still looks chimerical.<\/p>\n

\u201cConcealed Spaces\u201d will be on display until June 23, 2013. It\u2019s part of the Frost Museum\u2019s 2013 series commemorating 500 years of Spanish presence in Florida and the Caribbean. Other exhibitions on display for the series include the Seminole Paintings by Eugene Savage, which portray the tribe in the 1930s, and a site-specific glass installation by Javier Velasco titled \u201cDeep Blue.\u201d<\/p>\n