Description:
nude couple seated under a tree with birds in the tree and sky
Label Text:
Although two versions of the same subject, one a study in pen, the other the finished lithograph, the two tell a somewhat different story. In the pen study of The Tree of Life (El Árbol de la Vida), the stylized bulbous tree is paired with a large, rose-like vortex. The two figures, a man and a woman, sit casually in the foreground. The finished lithograph, with its brown, somewhat textured surround, places the couple on an isolated, paradisiacal island reminiscent of the biblical Eden. The pen study, however, does not include the brown enclosure and more importantly omits the iconic gesture of Eve giving the apple to Adam.
Julio Alpuy was a student of Joaquín Torres-García, the Uruguayan artist who developed a new philosophy of art that he called “Constructive Universalism.” This art form combined geometric forms with universal spiritual―“intuitive”― subjects.
These two works demonstrate this concept quite eloquently. The vortex, a universal geometric symbol found in nature and many non-western religions, is considered to be a metaphor of the cycle of life and death. Here Alpuy references the biblical story of the Fall in which mankind is punished for disobedience and thrust into the abyss (or vortex) of mortal existence.
Tags:
biblical; landscapes; men; women; birds Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+2016.56.19 |
