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N
egative space plays an important role in the
work of Carlos Morago, who paints his subjects
framed around the emptiness of their worlds. The
subjects are sequestered from the edges of the canvas,
and yet that isolation provides a sense of mystery and
even intimacy.
Flowers in vases and pill bottles on a table that are
framed beneath a field of color, a lush street scene tucked
past a white alleyway, a bright room framed by the
shadowed doorway—these subjects are given a poetic
presence through Morago’s delicate compositions.
“The process starts from a real model, from which
I’m doing a personal structure of my own sensi-
bility. It could be said that I change the reality until
reaching a conceptual synthesis of my own subjective
reality; trying to permeate the work with an intimacy,
ordering the chaos in some way; making the emotion
transmitted by the object prevail before the objectitself,” he says. “Inspiration makes me approach
simple themes, everyday objects that transmit beauty
to me, inviting a reflective moment, silence.”
This sense of reflective intimacy can be felt in a
painting like Ventana al Fondo, a work that shows a
simple view of a windowed wall of an apartment. The
blinds are pulled partially down, mostly obscuring
the view of adjacent apartment buildings. Almost the
entirety of the painting is white, and the shapes are
relatively uniform—from the panels of the window to
the radiator at the base of the wall—and yet there is
a closeness that can be felt among the forms and the
uniformity of the color.
In another work, titled Callejón en Cadaqués,
the Spain-based painter uses walls and corners
to frame a lovely scene in a white-walled street.
“Cadaqués is a little village in the north of Costa
Brava (Cataluña), in which, despite tourism andCARLOS MORAGOTransmitting Beauty
UPCOMING SHOW PREVIEW / PRINCIPLE GALLERY
11 /12-12/ 1 Alexandria, VA1
Ventana al Fondo,
oil on wood, 35 x 57½"
2
Callejón en Cadaqués,
oil on wood, 23½ x 39"
3
Cortina Roja, oil on
wood, 19½ x 27½"
4
Tarro de Rosas, oil on
wood, 19½ x 19½"1