La Cruz (The Cross)

Another potent expression from an extremely sensitive painter who loves literature as well as the visual arts.  Illustrated full page color (page 80) in the 1997 exhibition catalogue produced for the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey titled Roberto Marquez Fragments from Time.

Below is Roberto's discussion of La Cruz:

“La Cruz” is one of the first paintings I made when I first moved to this country. 

My work has been constantly  informed by religion and Catholic imagery (still is). Although I am not particularly religious and my interest is not devotional,  I am fascinated by the narrative and the metaphors religion can inspire.

When I was still in Mexico I attended poetry workshops and was reading a lot about The Gnostics, Alchemy and Symbolism. The main pictorial influences of my formative years  were painters like Balthus and the painters of the Counter-Reformation, particularly Caravaggio. In fact, this painting takes Caravaggio’s crucitfition of St. Peter as a point of departure.  The three soldiers preparing the martyrdom  are replaced in my painting by three female ghostly figures, sort of Orans. Perhaps I intended to create a tension between suffering and eroticism.

Although the inverted cross represents St. Peter’s sacrifice in christian symbology, it has also been used as an anti-Christian heretic symbol. As you know, the final interpretation of an artwork, relies on the spectator. For me, I see this painting as my youthful exercise of deconstructing Caravaggio’s famous work."

Roberto Marquez was born in Mexico City in 1959 where he lived until his family moved to Guadalajara in 1972. While living in Guadalajara from 1976 to 1983, he studied sculpture in the School of Fine Arts, poetry in the Elias Nandino Literary Workshop and architecture in the Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO). In 1983 after receiving his degree in architecture, he left the profession and dedicated himself to painting.

In 1985 he moved to the United States, residing in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he remained for five years.

Since 1990, he has lived in the New York area. 'Unearthly and similarities to New York are not common descriptions of the Mallee, but they are just some of the impressions Mexican-born artist Roberto Marquez came away with following a two-week stay in the district recently.

Roberto, based himself at The Art Vault's residence while exploring the area, and the artistic talent of the district. He said one of his favourite spots in the district is Lake Mungo.

"It feels unreal, like you're suspended , you can't even quite understand what it is while you're there, like you're walking on the moon, an unearthly landscape," Roberto said. He said the relationships he built up during his short stay, which wasn't his first visit to the district, are among the most precious experiences he will take with him.

"For me, the most important aspect of being her has been the ability to create friendships with the local artistic community here, it's been very enriching," Roberto said. Taken from Mildura Weekly, story by Ben Piscioneri, 6/03/09.

COLLECTIONS Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Monterrey, Mexico Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona Arizona State University Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C. McDonalds Corporation, Chicago, Illinois Shirley L. & Herbert J. Semler Foundation, Portland, Oregon. Museo de las Artes, Guadalajara, México" taken from AskArt.com