The exploration of colour and natural surroundings has predominated the history of modern, Venezuelan art. Since the early part of the Twentieth Century, artists have represented nature through imported artistic styles, and the mid-century rupture with academicism gave way to an absolute study of colour, resulting in works that were purely abstract and introduced the country into modernism through the work of artists like the Cinetics: Jesus Soto, Carlos Cruz Diez, Alejando Otero.
Reinaldo Crespo, born in Carora, Venezuela (1960) synthesizes these two tendencies in works that suggest the scenery of his childhood. Since the 80s he has rescued his memories by invading the picture space with intense gesture and a veritable festival of chromatic tension and harmony. The present series, Memorias del Morere, has an even more particular emphasis on colour -superimposed tonalities and transparencies of yellow, with hints of cobalt and raw canvas-as the artist attempts to recall the sights of his home state of Lara: the Morere River, its muddy waters and clay banks, and, of course, the sun at its most intense, almost blinding, luminosity.
The artist currently lives and works in Maracay, Venezuela.