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Lot Essay
“Abstraction has always been important because it offers open structures and poetry in forms, and musicality,” Herrero recently reflected. “We as humans are not only made out of thoughts and concepts” (quoted in N. Sayej, “Federico Herrero’s Paintings are ‘Poems in Space,’” Forbes, 18 February 2020). A lyrical and cerebral colorist, Herrero continues to innovate within and around the genres of landscape and abstraction, his practice moving fluidly between the street and the studio. He has hung canvases from trees in San José and painted walls, buses, and parking garages around the world, activating urban and public spaces through patches of brilliant, joyful color. Herrero received the Special Prize for Young Artists at the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001, and he is represented in major public collections, among them the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Tate Modern, and the Museu de Arte de São Paulo. Still based in Costa Rica, he established the independent art space Despacio in 2008 to support young artists across Central America.
“I tend to connect the canvas work with the way I see things grow,” Herrero allows. “It’s always a push and pull, especially in a developing country. The urban structure here is always ready to change and most importantly is never finished. It’s always open-ended, to be continued… When I am painting a canvas I apply this notion of openness to the point that it becomes the method. The core of the painting is an open structure not only in how it is self-constructed, but also in how it can be interpreted as clouds in the sky. I would like every person to see something different and the more you look the more things you see. But I am also thinking of a landscape” (quoted in S. Hernández Chong Cuy, “Energy Flows,” Federico Herrero, Dortmund, 2017, pp. 173-74).
Landscape emerges through characteristically exuberant layers and textures of pastel pigment in this Untitled, the density of colors suggestive of the forms and architecture of a city. “Normally a lot of my paintings are landscapes where the pigment has a quality of gravity or where color and shapes can float in an image,” Herrero notes. “Pigments are jumping from place to place in my paintings. I connect this with how I perceive public space. I see painting jumping from place to place there as well” (ibid., p. 174). The harmonic vitality and rhythm of Untitled harks back to earlier modernist painting—Stuart Davis, Tarsila do Amaral—and projects a cosmopolitan dynamism well-suited to the curious characters “made in a strange land” interspersed among the colors. “They are aliens,” Herrero explains. “They are all in my head and are simply a very personal way to interpret my daily life. Although they seem to relate to the style of cartoons I am less interested in those connotations. They are rather mental forms, like a distorted personal memory from my daily experiences. They represent the ideas that come into our minds, sometimes only lasting a split-second” (quoted in J. Hoffmann, “Interview,” Federico Herrero: El oficio de pintar, Dusseldorf, 2006).
Abby McEwen, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, College Park
“I tend to connect the canvas work with the way I see things grow,” Herrero allows. “It’s always a push and pull, especially in a developing country. The urban structure here is always ready to change and most importantly is never finished. It’s always open-ended, to be continued… When I am painting a canvas I apply this notion of openness to the point that it becomes the method. The core of the painting is an open structure not only in how it is self-constructed, but also in how it can be interpreted as clouds in the sky. I would like every person to see something different and the more you look the more things you see. But I am also thinking of a landscape” (quoted in S. Hernández Chong Cuy, “Energy Flows,” Federico Herrero, Dortmund, 2017, pp. 173-74).
Landscape emerges through characteristically exuberant layers and textures of pastel pigment in this Untitled, the density of colors suggestive of the forms and architecture of a city. “Normally a lot of my paintings are landscapes where the pigment has a quality of gravity or where color and shapes can float in an image,” Herrero notes. “Pigments are jumping from place to place in my paintings. I connect this with how I perceive public space. I see painting jumping from place to place there as well” (ibid., p. 174). The harmonic vitality and rhythm of Untitled harks back to earlier modernist painting—Stuart Davis, Tarsila do Amaral—and projects a cosmopolitan dynamism well-suited to the curious characters “made in a strange land” interspersed among the colors. “They are aliens,” Herrero explains. “They are all in my head and are simply a very personal way to interpret my daily life. Although they seem to relate to the style of cartoons I am less interested in those connotations. They are rather mental forms, like a distorted personal memory from my daily experiences. They represent the ideas that come into our minds, sometimes only lasting a split-second” (quoted in J. Hoffmann, “Interview,” Federico Herrero: El oficio de pintar, Dusseldorf, 2006).
Abby McEwen, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, College Park