Roberto Cortázar
b. 1962, Mexico City, Mexico
In an era of sometimes overwhelming postmodernist polemics and conceptual debate, Roberto Cortázar paintings bring a refreshing humanistic point of view and a sense of wonder of the oldest artistic subject matter: us. A true contemporary Renaissance man, Cortázar draws from the past his only subject matter as well as classical remarkable technical proficiency (silver point on oil on wooden boards). However, he is not an artist of the past but of the future. Constantly evolving, in his latest kinetic studies he attempts to place form and volume in “unexpected places”. He distorts their representation visually and physically through the use of concave panels and three-dimensional techniques. The composition is either distorted to the point of becoming incomprehensible or, on the contrary, regains clarity and intensity.
Roberto Cortázar’s concern with the human figure and his precise classical rendering of it helped draw attention to his work since he graduated from the National School of the Arts in Mexico City in 1983. His 1990’s works featuring bodies juxtaposed over a backdrop of symbolic segmentation would gain him notoriety in Mexico and the United States. By 2006 he had exceeded over 100 exhibitions in galleries, museums and art fairs worldwide. His work is held by many public and private collections, including one of the very few living artists in “La Colección”, the most important cultural heritage collection in Mexico curated by the National Institute of Fine Arts. Eugenio Lopez Alonso, owner of the Jumex Collection, one of the 20 largest in the world, bought a Cortázar as his first painting.
From 2005 to 2010 Cortázar committed himself to major projects for three of the most important museums in Latin America: the Museo Amparo, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey, MARCO and the Mexican National Museum of Art, MUNAL. His retrospective exhibition with Puerta Roja would be his first commercial show in 5 years and his first in Hong Kong. Cortázar presented his latest works at the Museum of Art of San Diego in 2012, with the series Dynamic and his work Dr. Moore’s Blue Note after Rivera.
Roberto is represented by Puerta Roja in Asia since 2012.
