Who is Cesar Corregio? This talented Abstract painter is a strong addition to Thierry B's stable of Australian artists. With over four decades as a painter, Corregio continues to draw attention to the story of the line. The dividing line between the painterly and the linear in art is by no means a hard and fast one.
Abstract painting is often explained as ‘self-examination, self-reassurance and self-expression’. Mark-makers, Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, and Barnett Newman saw themselves, especially during the 1940s, as modern ‘myth-makers’ who, by having recourse to ‘primitive’ and archaic cultures – hoped to create timeless and immediately accessible metaphors and symbols for the condition of ‘modern man’.
Above: Cesar Corregio, Tourmente sur la lagune,122 x 152cm, Synthetic Polymer Paint on Canvas, P.O.A.
Above: Cesar Corregio, Emporte par la foule, 122 x 152cm, Synthetic Polymer Paint on Canvas, P.O.A.
Here Corregio creates a choreograph of space, a narrative which explores a dance of elements if you like - utilising the blank canvas, broom-sized brushes and tins of paint to define the framework and reveal intention.
Above: Cesar Corregio, Entree Parentheses 183 x 122cm, Synthetic Polymer Paint on Canvas, P.O.A
The great American art historian, Clement Greenberg, wrote in 1962, "If the label ‘Abstract Expressionism’ means anything, it means painterliness: loose, rapid handling, or the look of it; masses that blotted and fused instead of shapes that stayed distinct; large and conspicuous rhythms; broken color, uneven saturations or densities of paint, exhibited brush, knife, and many marks."
To watch the process hard at work, see fellow Abstract painter, Antoni Tapies demonstrates this spatial conundrum here: