In today's unpredictable world of contemporary art, it is always refreshing to see an artist who can convey themes of fantasy and the old world that still retain a modern-day essence. The latest show from Norma Bessouet, entitled "Visions," simultaneously explores the worlds of old and new and is now on display at the Arden Gallery on Newbury Street.
Bessouet hails from Argentina and built the foundation of her art career at home in Buenos Aires. She has studied in London and in Italy, where she was able to look to the works of the Old Masters for inspiration. She cites the artists of the Italian quattrocento along with Velazquez and El Greco as her muses, and traces of these historic artists shine through in her paintings.
Bessouet's style of painting has a crisp, clean, pure quality about it. She uses oil paint but applies it liberally and painstakingly so that each painting has an unbelievable smoothness to it. She also uses shocking, bright colors to depict her realist scenes and characters, giving all of her paintings an imaginary feel; all of her scenes look like something out of a dream.
Many of Bessouet's paintings feature as their primary subject the same boy. She paints this boy from life in her studio and uses his behavior and actions as inspiration for her paintings. If not nude, he is shirtless and clad in a pair of black shorts. Often, Bessouet's paintings portray some sort of mythical entity in addition to a physical character, giving her work an ethereal quality. The scenes and settings tend to be imaginary and dreamlike.
Perhaps the most striking work in the collection, "Courtyard of the Universe" (2009), looks like it could be something out of Salvador Dali's oeuvre. Its colors are bold and its subject matter is unconventional. Bessouet depicts a red curtain in the foreground, a tactic originating from the days of the Baroque, to both set the scene and display her skills as an artist by rendering a complicated object with many folds and curves. Peeking out from behind the curtain is a woman in Elizabethan garb who is pointing to a young boy lying on the ground, surrounded by a lion, a fox, some hoops and a stick. In her notes she describes this scene as her model's fantasy, his dream world and the inner workings of his head.
Other works have some religious undertones, but nothing is completely overt. Bessouet is religious herself and has put her own spin on some traditional holy scenes, as in the especially poignant works "Annunciation" (2009) and "St. George" (2009). Still, Bessouet does not let religion permeate her entire body of work.
In "Annunciation," Bess-ouet's oft-portrayed boy plays the role of the Archangel Gabriel. He has a set of midnight-blue wings and extends his right hand, pointing at a young girl in a white gown, obviously the Virgin Mary. They are standing on a rocky coast with a crescent moon casting its effervescent light over the calm sea. The work has an extremely surrealist quality: It looks like young children playing dress-up for a religious scene. The full gamut of blue tones gives the painting a certain luminosity. This is intensified by the contrast of the figures' skin tones with the navy and indigo shades of the background. The glossiness and precision of the painting is phenomenal.
"St. George" also features Bessouet's favorite model. In this painting, the boy holds a sword in his right hand, extended high over a dragon half his size. The painting is set in what appears to be an attic-style room with skylight windows in the left corner. A white horse with a red saddle and bridle appears to cascade from the windows, and a girl lies asleep in the opposite corner. The contrasting nature of the four entities in this painting contributes to its dreamlike, fantastic atmosphere. Once again, Bessouet glosses her painting to the point of perfection; the shine of her paintings makes them all seem flawless.
Norma Bessouet's ethereal work is truly worth seeing. She modestly cites the aphorism that her artistic aptitude is "one percent talent and ninety-nine percent work," but it is clear that she possesses an inordinate amount of genius.
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Norma Bessouet: "Visions"
At the Arden Gallery
April 29
129 Newbury St., Boston
617-247-0610
