MU S E O
C O L LA Z O© Raphael Collazo Foundation2004. All rights reserved.
MU S E OC O L LA Z O
© Raphael Collazo Foundation2004. All rights reserved.
CurrentExhibition:
A Healing Garden
EnglishSpanish
FeaturedEssay:
TheArt of Raphael Collazo: Rupture and ReconciliationSpanish
Catalog:
The Paintings of Raphael Collazo
CONTENTS
ColorPlate of Raphael Collazo with Ernest Acker-Gherardino, 1985
ColorPlate of Raphael Collazo, 1989
PROPHECIES (1975-1976)
TAPESTRIES (1984-early1986)
Early Tapestries (early-middle1984)
Middle Tapestries (late1984-early 1985)
Late Tapestries (middle1985)
Epic Tapestries (late1985-early 1986)
NYMPHAL INSTARS (middle-late1986)
HEALING GARDENS (1987-1988)
Early Healing Gardens(early-middle 1987)
Middle Healing Gardens(late 1987-early 1988)
Late Healing Gardens(middle-late 1988)
TRANSCENDENCE (early-middle1989)
Black Figures (early1989)
Yaddo (middle 1989)
Note on the Color Plate of Raphael Collazowith Ernest Acker-Gherardino, 1985
A selection of prophetic paintings, all currently knownmature paintings and a selection of mature works on paper arecataloged in approximate chronological order.
Introduction to the Prophetic and Mature Paintings
INDEX OF PROPHECIES(1975-1976)
with commentary
INDEX OF TAPESTRIES (1984-early 1986)
Indexof Early Tapestries (early-middle 1984)
Indexof Middle Tapestries (late 1984-early 1985)
Indexof Late Tapestries (middle 1985)
Indexof Epic Tapestries (late 1985-early 1986)
INDEXOF NYMPHAL INSTARS (middle-late 1986)
INDEX OF HEALING GARDENS (1987-1988)
Index ofEarly Healing Gardens (early-middle 1987)
Index ofMiddle Healing Gardens (late 1987-early 1988)
Index ofLate Healing Gardens (middle-late 1988)
INDEX OFTRANSCENDENCE (early-middle 1989)
REFERENCE
The Collages and Boxes of RaphaelCollazo
Martin Haggland,1998-1999
Index of Collages and Boxes(1969-1983)
The Rococo Works of Raphael Collazo
Index of Rococo Works(1969-1983)
The Mature Works on Paper of RaphaelCollazo
Martin Haggland,2000
Indexof Mature Works on Paper (1984-1989)
The Figure in the Art of RaphaelCollazo
Martin Haggland,2002
Index of FigurativeWorks (1961-1988)
One-Person Exhibitions (1984-Present)
The Paintings of Raphael Collazo:Notes
The Collages and Boxes of RaphaelCollazo: Notes
The Rococo Works of Raphael Collazo:Notes
The Mature Works on Paper of RaphaelCollazo: Notes
The Figure in the Art of Raphael Collazo:Notes
RaphaelCollazo: Catalogue Raisonné
Martin Haggland, 2001-2002
Martin Haggland, 1997-2004
-- Raphael Collazo
Most of the information on this world wide web site and inthe accompanying catalog would have been lost were it not forthe meticulous collection of Collazo's documents by Kay Acker.These documents are now preserved in the Colección de lasArtes of the Library System of the University of Puerto Rico throughthe efforts of Iris R. Parrilla and Oscar Mestey-Villamil. Equallyindispensable is Steve Bates' photographic record of the artist'sworks.
The author gratefully acknowledges the time and effort thatWilbert Cruz and Oswaldo Flores contributed over a period of severalyears to preserve and to document that work. As well, the followingmuseums and institutions deserve recognition for their commitmentto preserving and exhibiting Collazo's artistic legacy:
Colección de las Artes
Library System, University of PuertoRico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
The Hispanic Society of America Museum
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de PuertoRico
San Juan, PuertoRico
Museo de Arte de Ponce
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Museo de Arte e Historia de San Juan
Museo de Historia, Antropología yArte
University of PuertoRico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
El Museo del Barrio
New York
Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art
New York
Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Fine Arts
New Britain Museum of American Art
New Britain, Connecticut
The Parrish Art Museum
Southampton, New York
State University of New York Albany Museumof Art
Albany, New York
Tampa Art Museum
Tampa, Florida
Tucson Museum of Art
Tucson, Arizona
The University of Arizona Museum of Art
The University of Utah, Utah Museum of FineArts
Salt Lake City,Utah
Yaddo
SaratogaSprings, New York
By establishing this world wide web site and publishing theaccompanying catalog, the trustees of his artistic estate hopeto introduce Raphael Collazo to a wider public. First,some prophetic works are considered, then a selection of paintingsfrom the last six years of the artist's life. Reference materialsfollow; including three monographs (on the collages and boxes,the influence of the Rococo and the works on paper of 1984-1989),a chronology, manuscripts and statements by or about the artist,a list of one-person exhibitions, a record of works in museumcollections, a description of source materials and notes. Thetitle, date, medium and dimensions of each work appear with itsimage. Additionally, the collection, location and relation toother works in its series are shown in the index.
The late Ernest Acker-Gherardino (1924-1995)is frequently quoted. An artist himself, Acker-Gherardino wasCollazo's life-long friend, his patron from 1984 onward and thecurator of most of his exhibitions.1
Raphael Collazo (1943-1990) was a New York painter of PuertoRican birth; whose work is rooted in Abstract Expressionism, inthe Italian masters and in the eighteenth century French painters,particularly Watteau. Prophetic, abstract expressionist paintingsof 1975 and 1976, such as Emergence and The Annunciation preceded the artist'smature work by nearly a decade.
Collazo had always been burdened by the necessity of workingfor a living until 1984, when his patron gave him the freedomto devote all of his time to painting. The result was a remarkableacceleration in his artistic development and the production ofthe body of his mature work in the six-year period before hisuntimely death, at the beginning of 1990. The known, mature workconsists of 119 paintings on canvas or wood panel and 184 workson paper, notably the 30 painting-like works on paper of the HealingGardens series.2
The first mature paintings, the Early Tapestries (early-middle1984), often have maze patterns or girder structures, as seenin Nervous Environment and Lost Ground. While called "Tapestries",the works in this series are not literally tapestries, butderive that name from the rich, tapestry-like effect created bytheir many layers of brush strokes. The Middle Tapestries (late1984-early 1985) are large-scale, collaged paintings, typifiedby historical or philosophical themes, such as Italy For You and How to Draw & Paint. These werefollowed by the bold, usually freeform, constructions of the LateTapestries series (middle 1985), including Landscape with Saint John the Baptistand Squid.The Epic Tapestries (late 1985-early 1986) are denseswamp or forest landscapes, exemplified by Goodbye Rococo and The Magic Is Back.
The Tapestries were followed by the Nymphal Instars(middle-late 1986), a series of paintings inspired by themetamorphosis of insects, which in Collazo's work refers to thecreation of life and to spiritual awakening, as in Nymphal Instars II and Wing Venation.
After the Nymphal Instars, the artist struggled fora new approach. This, he attained in the Healing Gardens (1987-1988);which are composed predominantly of human and biomorphic shapesrather than lines, marking a fundamental shift in his formal approach.Also distinctive is a light palette with an extensive use of white.Multiple landscape vignettes characterize the Early HealingGardens (early-middle 1987), such as Vermont and Arcadia; while works of the Middleseries (late 1987-early 1988), such as A Healing Garden and All Souls' Day, radiate a healingpower. Late Healing Gardens (middle-late 1988), such asManin China and Fresher by the Minute, evoke theimmense forces of nature that shape the Earth.
The Transcendent series comprises the Black Figureand the Yaddo paintings. The introspective and etherealBlack Figure paintings (early 1989) contain a single blackfigure, perhaps engaged in some heroic task, in an achromaticand mythic realm, as in Fata Morgana and New World Rider. In contrast tothat ethereality, the Yaddo paintings (middle 1989) expressa love for the physicality of nature. Inspired by the woods ofthe Yaddo art colony, the artist used forest colors and thick,textured impasto in the form of stones, earth, leaves, cones andbark; in landscapes, such as A Bower and Forest Rendezvous, one of his finalworks.
In his recent analysis of the painter, critic José AntonioPérez Ruiz concluded:
"Throughout his life, Raphael Collazo... put all of hisdetermination into developing a body of work that reflected hismultifaceted character. He directed his task in a very personalway. The use of private symbols let him bring together in hiscanvases both conscious and subconscious subjects. His searchfor ever wider and more distant expressive horizons did not permithis task to be circumscribed by ephemeral fashions, nor did itlet the transitory impose restrictions on his works. Rather, itallowed his inner impulses to act and to call forth the elementsthat he incorporated in his paintings. What was necessary in hiscreations depended upon whatever he believed to be right at themoment of painting them. Observing his work as a whole, we perceivethat he maintained an aesthetic independence. It is difficultfor us, therefore, to ascribe him to any schools or movements.Nevertheless, we can affirm that Expressionism constituted theliberating catalytic agent of a labor for which he was forcedon many occasions to interrupt the sequentiality of time....
At other times, the artist made use of chance occurrences,extracting from them images susceptible of interpretation, whosefunction is to stimulate the imagination. In these cases, hisrealizations provide rich interpretative challenges. In them,we find paths that branch off to give way to subjective manifestations.Thus, he favored individual interpretations that transform eachcanvas into a place where all of these understandings meet."3
"Looking back", said Collazo in 1984, "I seethat intimations of my present style flashed forth periodicallyin my work of previous years. Many times, these isolated paintingsseemed to me of no consequence. Actually, they were prophecies,the full realization of which is now on display."4Such paintings include The Ladies, Left Behind For Cythera, SoutholdFen, By A River, Emergence and The Annunciation. These works reflectthe influences of Abstract Expressionism, the Italian mastersand the eighteenth century French painters, as commented uponin the Indexof Paintings: Index of Prophecies (1975-1976). Of
"In The Annunciation, which significantlyhe originally called Desecration, we see perfectly illustratedthe all-encompassing awareness that gives Collazo's work its uniquethrust. In his searching antiquarianism combined with an acutesense of passing through time, he presents us with a sense ofthe truly new....
The Annunciation is a seminal work in Collazo's oeuvre,a prophecy of what we see marvelously realized in the 'tapestry'paintings ten years later. As he describes the painting of thispicture: he had done a large rendering of Leonardo's Annunciation,so fascinated was he with this master work of the Renaissancepainter. Then, he proceeded to 'bring it up to date' by overpaintingwith sgraffito-like gestures. He 'attacked' the renderedwork as time attacks everything, symbolically obscuring it inskeins of event, enriching it with experience.
What Collazo is saying is that we are not fixed in some permanentpast where everything is new, as it was when first completed.Neither can we escape back into some former world. We are here,now; the centuries intrude between us and that once new thing,though it still shines through with a continuing richness....
Unlike most painters of his age: self-imposed moderns, cutoff in their own small time, eschewing the past in the misplacedrage to be new, Collazo approaches all time, the truly new.
Annunciation is exciting because it shows us the startingpoint of Collazo's developed philosophy of painting: to live inall time and to see all..."5
Acker-Gherardino curated Collazo's first mature exhibition, in September 1984,choosing from the Early Tapestries and including the firsttwo paintings of the Middle Tapestries series. All 34 paintingsshown were from the preceding nine months with the exception ofone much older work. Acker-Gherardino explained that exception:
"...Emergence...,painted in 1976, was a prophecy, eight years in advance, of Collazo'smature modern style. It was also a prophecy of paintings to comeafter the present date. In this painting, as in the paintingsproduced in the last nine months, the brush ranges at will overthe canvas, free, without constraint or presuppositions. Here,the artist is thinking with his hand, that is: the thought andthe stroke are simultaneous. Long threads and swirls are builtup to form the image, with a layered, cumulative force. Suddenly,they are slathered together to form a new ground. This is scratchedinto with new lines, the way ruins build up. New slashes of paintand skeins are woven over this. A chalky yellow shines throughthe predominantly blue lines."6
While Abstract Expressionism had the greatest influence onCollazo, his painting is firmly rooted in the Italian traditionof figure and landscape painting: "I am well versed in theItalian Masters from Cimabue to de Chirico and they have beena constant inspiration in my work."7Again: "The things I think a painting should achieve, inmy era, or in any era, are in the Italian masters, from Cimabueto de Chirco, in Giotto, in Giorgione, Bellini..."8A lesser, but still important, influence were the eighteenth centuryFrench painters, especially Watteau.
With few exceptions, the Early Tapestries are figuraland, without exception, all are landscapes. One common element,noted Acker-Gherardino, "...is the maze-grid, which is aningenious way of establishing perspective and at the same timea transparent floor, also a way of folding space... or, more aptly'warping space'. In none of Ralph's paintings do we come up againsta solid wall of resistance. This is a floating world...."9 The maze-grid can be seen in Furnished Landscape, Court and Nervous Environment.
"...Lost Ground is a pivotal painting",said Acker-Gherardino, "This painting has more empty spacethan all the others. It marks the abandonment of "pretty","nostalgic" subject matter and the first bold step intothe brutal modern landscape, as embodied in the girder structureon the left. It is a spare, confident clearing of the decks. Soon,the paintings that follow will fill up with contemporary references....To me, the significance of these elements, the girder and thegrid-maze, is that everything can be penetrated and allows usthe layering of experience, visual experience...."10
Sardonyx,with its girl on a swing and its splendid sense of air andmovement, shows the early, but lasting, influence of Watteau onCollazo's sensibility; in this instance, The Swing (c.1712, The Museum, Helsinki).
The shifting planes of the maze-grids float lyrically in
One of the late paintings of this series, So Lonely Since You Went Away, isa meditative scene with seated figures at the edge of a forestpool and standing figures in the distance. It is similar to theearlier works, but is more sophisticated in creating a mood.
In ItalyFor You, which portrays the Eternal City, the artist initiatedthe grand themes that would occupy him during this period. Emboldenedby the success of the Early Tapestries and inspired byhis recent tour of Italy, Collazo explored historical and philosophicalthemes centered around the concept of time; a reflection of hisdesire for an "all-encompassing awareness", to "livein all time and to see all":
"For me, the present is not just today. It is the sumof everything I have seen and felt and read before, plus today.Now is the oldest age, a hundred years older than 1884, for instance;not the newest.
Older is better. We are not in a capsule of the present. Weare living for all time. That is how I live in my paintings. Thiscumulative experience is missing from the truncated lives in whichwe trap ourselves by trying to be new. A work of art frees usfrom this tortured circumstance."12
Matching the 80 x 70 inch size favored by de Kooning, theselarge abstract expressionist canvases are dominated at first bywebs and then by triangular grids, as seen in The Anxious Rate of the Heart, The Beginning of Time (inspiredby a mathematical diagram of that event in Stephen Hawking's ABrief History of Time), Style of the Month, Nekofi Cerkafi, and Moon in the Window.
Later, pages from books and fragments of tapestries enrichthe paintings' allusions. Collazo delighted in shopping at storesalong New York's 14th Street, buying vulgar tapestries, cuttingthem up in his studio and applying the fragments to his canvases.Remnants continue to appear in his paintings for more than a year.The sophisticated humor of How to Draw & Paint, for example,derives from its pages from a "how to" book on making"art" and pieces of a notoriously kitsch tapestryof bulldogs playing pool.
The entire surface of Archeology is collaged with pagesfrom one of the artist's favorite books on that subject, evokingthe passage of human time; while Terrible Lizards, with pages froma book on dinosaurs, is a contemplation of time on the geologicalscale. In later works, the tapestry fragments depict biblicalthemes; also creating a sense of history, deepening the meaningand enhancing the grandeur of the paintings.
The distinguishing features of the Late Tapestries arebold areas of black, virtuoso abstract expressionist passages,aggressive collage elements (even tarpaper) and the use of woodpanel instead of canvas, as seen in Landscape with Saint John the Baptist,an early painting of the series. Such energy could not be constrainedwithin the confines of the rectangle for long.
Vibrant freeform constructions, such as Squid, N.G.C. (New Galaxy Cataloged) andArc(K), soon appeared, made of curvilinear and triangularwooden panels attached to a central, rectangular canvas or panel.In these strong compositions, the solid areas of black and thepainterly passages replace the formerly dominant webs and grids,which remain at first as vestigial elements, then disappear. Alsogone are the grand themes: the theme of these works, trueto abstract expressionist principle, is strictly their own formand the process of creating them. About Collazo's painting method,Pérez Ruiz remarked:
"...we can affirm that Expressionism constituted the liberatingcatalytic agent of a labor for which he was forced on many occasionsto interrupt the sequentiality of time. When that happened, hecould reveal an esoteric knowledge that can place us in futuristicspaces and even can bring to mind transgalactic cultures. Theseare panels dominated by spiraling strokes that create turbulentsensations. Among those brushstrokes, isolated visions begin toappear, not yet completely materialized before our eyes. Whenwe look at these panels, we note how those pictorial whirlwindsact. They seem to behave as if demarcating the space in orderto establish their own world. At times, we seem to discern compositionsplanned to contain within them new paradises. Those brushstrokesseek to emulate the action of the Almighty when he gave orderto preexisting chaos."13
From this time onward, the artist painted primarily on woodpanel, a stable support for his collage elements and increasinglythick impasto.
Works on paper, sometimes cut out and collaged onto the paintingsor onto other works on paper, include the remarkable Destructure, in which the web andgrid structures have disintegrated, revealing an expressionist,painterly style.
The freeforms were quickly followed by the Epic Tapestries,the astonishing climax of the Tapestries series.
"Goodbye Rococo shows an energetictropical world of water, vegetation and animal-like forms. Vibrantcolors enhance the painting's movement and beauty, while the largesize of the work immerses the viewer in this imagined world."14
"Goodbye Rococo was a sort of valedictory for Collazo",says Peter Bermingham, "a fond farewell to the flowery sentimentsand stylish motifs that keynoted much of his work in the earlyeighties. Goodbye Rococo captivates by its insistent contrasts.For example, a beautifully rendered swampscape is completed byflowers on musty wallpaper; a cloth duck and a sandpaper satellitefloat upon the scene, while sumptuously painted waves are transformedinto fish or 'completed' by dry bark. It all works, I think, ina way best described by Joshua Taylor's reflections on RobertRauschenberg written in 1974. 'The most stirring beauty,' he wrote,'comes from order found, not order given, as if its permanentharmony existed precariously in a transient and unpredictableworld.'"15
By the summer of 1986, Collazo had become fascinated with "nymphalinstars", an early form of certain insects before they metamorphoseand develop wings. His interest was likely sparked by a collectionof Lepidoptera specimens given to him by a friend fouryears before. Paintings of this series contain images of cocoons,within which creatures are transforming or from which they areemerging; and patterns of venation as seen in the wings of flyinginsects, such as dragonflies or butterflies. This imagery became,in Collazo's paintings, a powerful reference to the creation oflife and to spiritual awakening. In comparison to the swamps andforests of the Epic Tapestries, the Nymphal Instarsare like jungles filled with exotic creatures and rich coloration.
Metamorphoses,a work on paper, perfectly embodies the essence of the artist'srealization, developed on a large scale in Nymphal Instars I, Nymphal Instars II, Bug Out, Complete Metamorphes and the magnificentWingVenation. At the time he was exhibiting these paintings,he wrote:
"Essentially, my work consists in placing anonymous, mostlybiomorphic shapes and volumes at different distances in a dramatic,deep space realized by careful juxtapositions and gradations ofcolor. I use renaissance space, both atmospheric and geometricand strive for a grandeur of arrangement and gesture in my forms.By this I hope to achieve a timeless and limpid environment inwhich the eye can wander...."16
After these achievements, Collazo struggled for a new approach.SepiaSojourn, Watteau Back and El Soñador may be precursors;while InstarsII clearly shows the dominance of shape over line which,from this time, characterizes the artist's work. It also showsthe concept of space as multiple landscape vignettes which characterizethe next series, the Early Healing Gardens.
In the major shift in his formal methods which divides theTapestries and Nymphal Instars from the HealingGardens and Transcendent paintings, Collazo began composinghis works primarily of human and biomorphic shapes, rather thanlines.17 Also distinctive is a light palettewith an extensive use of white. In the Early Healing Gardens,the shapes are highly varied in form and define multiple landscapevignettes. These simultaneous vignettes are conceptually similarto the Cubist's use of multiple perspectives to more fully depictan object. Compared to the sequestered swamps, forests and junglesof the earlier series; there is a great sense of light, air, opennessand distant horizons, as seen in Fast Forward, Vermont, Paseo, Paradiso and Arcadia. Speaking of his month-longstay at the Vermont Studio Colony, the artist relates:
"The different perspective and surroundings deepened thework. Removed from the familiarity of my own city, outside ofmyself, I clarified my forms and added new ones. They began tocombine human and biomorphic shapes interchangeably.
At the same time, the space in my paintings has shifted toadd size perspective to geometric perspective and de-emphasizeatmospheric perspective. Forms overlap. They relate more to eachother rather than float independently. While still striving fora grandeur of arrangement in a timeless environment, I have nowdrawn back, so that what formerly occupied an entire canvas maynow be only a segment of a larger landscape. I am paradoxicallyinvolved in a synthesis of modernist flatness with a simultaneousconveying of depth. I am tending toward more classic arrangementswhile not losing baroque drama..."18
Observing St. Augustine's dictum to "always proceed"that the artist had inscribed on an early work, Collazo movedbeyond depicting the natural world as a metaphor for the mysteriesof the human soul. For the first time, in the Middle HealingGardens, his paintings attained a heavenly transcendence.The extensive use of white, the soothing rounded forms and theunitary spatial composition (as compared to the more varied shapesand multiple vignettes of the Early Healing Gardens) contributeto the sense of harmony and well-being.
These triumphant works are radiant with a healing power andwere created in the artist's heart felt desire to assuage thepain of human suffering. Speaking about The Visitors and A Healing Garden, he said:
"...I was reading about visualizations, and I knew someone,a close friend who passed away, several friends who passed away,and the last one was a cancer patient and I was thinkin' -- Iread a lot about the people meditating and visualizing and helpingto ah have their illnesses go into remission. So, I was thinkingalong these lines and I was reading, and I had listened to thistape about meditating and visualizations; and when I listenedto this tape it was like everything was up in space, in the airand in the light. And they talked about this beautiful white light,and it's a healing light. And this gave me great inspiration formy paintings; I thought 'Oh, this sounds beautiful' and I wantedto have a place like that so people would look at my paintingand say 'Oh this is a beautiful, peaceful place I can sit downand meditate', and feel this wonderful warm light, healing light...."19
Although not religious in a traditional sense, the paintingsare deeply spiritual. In The Visitors, the first in thisseries of epic-scale works, the ancient, wise and beneficent red-robedguardian figures seem of another world; in the upper right ofAHealing Garden, a grey-robed "guide" leads theway to a world where pain and suffering no longer exist; in
Collazo also painted several joyous works of moderate size,including Lepidoptera,AGathering and Topiary; as well as a series ofsmall paintings on paper which radiate the same purifying lightand restorative effect as the great works. At first, the serieshas a transcendent quality, as seen in Fold-a-Roll. Later works evoke theocean's renewing power, as in Passage II; through a dominant tonalityof white combined with exquisite colors, shell-like impasto andother marvelously inventive forms:
"I have been intent upon expanding my paintings' images",explains Collazo, "synthesizing diverse elements of my previoustechniques and becoming, at the same time, freer and more skillful.For me, economy is not an object. I want to put everything inmy paintings: constantly invent new forms, employ every colorand shade I can concoct, vary my surface, create new texturesand use collage, or rather appliqué elements I make myself.
Thus, I mean to touch some deeper reaction source, achieveexcitement, beautiful excitement, painting excitement, the excitementof paint, as opposed to the numbing excitements of violence anddisorder that is our everyday and TV experience.
My paintings have a landscape basis, with foreground, middledistance and sky. Aggregations of forms are like gatherings ina crowd, open areas in between, air passing through. Within thisspace I try to make something happen that will give the viewer,and myself, a whole and satisfying experience, liftingus out of everyday life by symbolizing something wonderful, amemory, or an expectation of what can be: Drama and anticipation,conveyed with paint, color, form."20
The Late Healing Gardens continue the series of smallpaintings on paper. However; in an abrupt departure from the earlierworks, there are no heavenly scenes, nor idyllic beaches. Here,we are confronted with the raw power of nature: mountains risefrom the sea in Man in China, cosmic events unfoldin Gethsemane,an avalanche crashes into a surging river in Punta Rocosa and rudimentary lifeforms battle for survival in Fresher by the Minute. These worksare a prelude to the profound paintings that were to come duringthe last year of the artist's life.
"Collazo worked arduously", wrote critic Nilda M.Peraza, "to finish his ultimate series, the TranscendentSeries, which illustrates in a profound visual manner hisfarewell, his passage from the earthly to the spiritual, workscompletely interlaced with memories, experiences, ruptures, premonitionsand dreams, achieved in his pictorial language of profound lyricismand emotional depth. Here, the art of Collazo comes together andoffers us a painting intuitively connected by his dramatic senseof life.
Without becoming pessimistic, his visions explore the depthsof his spirit and from his silences emerge, in tranquility, aclear sense of triumph before the undoing of death."21
The Transcendent series, composed of the Black Figureand the Yaddo paintings, may be viewed as the final floweringof the Healing Gardens. Shapes remain the primary formalelement, but now there is more "empty" space or "air",created by unbroken areas of subdued color and subtle gradations.
In early 1989, the artist's painting transcended to an etherealand mythic realm, virtually devoid of color and characterizedby a single black figure in a cream and neutral space, as in
"Among Collazo's creative variations, exist monochromaticpanels in whose nucleuses emerge diffused figures that seem toconstitute themselves through a process of molecular assemblage,making us see those beings in the processes of formation, likespecters whose motions do not obey the laws of physics. Thosepersonages enter into the scene like irresistible forces.... Theyact in deserted environments where it is almost impossible todelineate the horizon from the sky. The surfaces are marked byirregular textures.... Those scars accentuate the aridity existingin these conceptions and contrast with the saturated atmosphereprevailing in others."22
The Black Figure paintings are the most searching, introspectiveand psychologically penetrating of the artist's conceptions. InFataMorgana and New World Rider, the figure seemsembarked on a heroic journey in an eternal world of swirling fogsand shrouded horizons. On the other hand, the aptly named
In contrast to the ethereal Black Figures, the worksof the Yaddo series express joy in the physicality of natureby means of their subdued forest colors and thick, textured impasto.Perhaps contemplating his own mortality; Collazo, like an awakeningdreamer, seems to grasp onto something solid to assure himselfof its and of his own reality. Inspired by the woods ofthe Yaddo art colony, the heavy impasto of these paintings takesthe form of stones, earth, leaves, cones and bark. Here, in thesummer of 1989, he painted Conspiracy [of 1989], A Walk in the Woods, Concordia Domus, Model of Decorum, Walking Stick, A Bower, The Jokers and the sublimeForestRendezvous, perhaps his final work. Of this masterpiece,his former dealer, Rosemary C. Erpf, said: "With the paintingForest Rendezvous..., Raphael achieved the control of hisown powers as an artist. In this work of great beauty and strength,one realizes a mature work by an artist of our time."23
"...I want my work to say it all to the viewerby just looking. It could mean so many things to so many people,so what I say is irrelevant. I want it to mean what it means toyou. Not what it means to me."24
-- Raphael Collazo
The most striking aspect of Collazo's paintings is the marvelousdiversity of shapes and colors awaiting our discovery. Abstract,sometimes gestural, these forms often bring to mind objects innature -- importantly, the human figure. In other cases, the formsare enigmatic and our attempt to decipher them leads to a multiplicityof possible interpretations, or none at all. Perhaps those formsrepresent objects in the process of formation and, thus, the creativeprinciple itself. Or, perhaps, they are chance elements that theartist decided to leave and, thus, are best understood as representingthe unknown, or unconscious. That uncertainty resonates throughouteach painting, precluding any simple explanation of its meaningbut, thereby, creating its power. While the recognizable forms,with their many associations, may be the ones we first noticeand enjoy; the indecipherable ones bring a sense of wonder tothe painting.
Together, the multitude of forms define the landscape-likespace in which they reside. "...something is definitely happening,"remarked Acker-Gherardino, "some crucial, mysteriously important,normally unnoticed event. But these are not story-telling paintings,although something significant and dramatic seems to be goingon. They start you imagining what might be, producing your ownfantasy."25 A form at the center ofICarve Up the Space suggests a fairy-tale house in thewoods where magical events might occur or extraordinary adventuresbegin. Or perhaps it reflects a longing for home. The house andthe other readily-interpreted forms, such as a woman holding anenormous bundle of pink flowers on her shoulders and a bent bicycle,combine with the enigmatic forms to suggest a dream-like narrativeof significant, yet not-quite-apprehensible events. This mysterymotivates us to ponder the many possibilities in order to resolveour mental perplexity; although, ultimately, we are unable todo so. That explains why the paintings exert a continuing fascination.
In Paseo,an early work on paper of the Healing Gardens series,recognizable natural objects, including the human figure, andother less-identifiable, but intriguing, even fantastic formspopulate the garden landscape -- more exactly the multiple landscapevignettes -- and create a flat, modernist, but paradoxically dimensionalsurface. The event in this work, as reflected in its title, isa paseo, or a walk, though a grand one, as through oneof Watteau's fêtes galantes. (The eighteenth centuryFrench painter's courtly garden scenes were beloved by Collazoand were a continuing source of his inspiration."26)The shapes and colors of the forms delight, but also engage adeeper level of our minds. By combining the familiar and the enigmatic,the artist stimulates us to gaze, inquire and devise possiblescenarios for the existence of his rare and delicate worlds. Aswe explore those worlds, Collazo sets off within us a stream ofvisual memories, associations and novel impressions. PérezRuiz noted how: "At... times, the artist made use of chanceoccurrences, extracting from them images susceptible of interpretation,whose function is to stimulate the imagination. In these cases,his realizations provide rich interpretative challenges. In them,we find paths that branch off to give way to subjective manifestations.Thus, he favored individual interpretations that transform eachcanvas into a place where all of these understandings meet."27
Unlike the paradisal Paseo, the figures and landscapesof the artist's late, Black Figure series are psychologicallypenetrating and stark. New World Rider suggests a queen-likefigure mounted on a horse passing through the rocky, desertedlandscape of a mythological world suspended in time. This evocativeevent starts us musing over its meaning. As we contemplate possibleinterpretations, we begin our own imaginative journey. But, afterall of our fantasies, the mystery remains and with it the enduringpower of Collazo's paintings to enchant us.
In her essay for Collazo's 1994-1995 retrospective exhibition at theMuseo de Arte e Historia de San Juan, Peraza declared:
"This was a painter who defined and linked his visionof art, strongly rooted in tradition, with a very specific personalvision and a strong expressive power, in a process where heterogeneousresources, by means of discordant textures, brilliant colors,assemblages, rapid brush strokes and unfinished passages, sustainin equilibrium his intuition and the painting's unity.... Collazohad a unique and authentic sense of the art that he brought forth,on one hand, giving free rein to his gestural and spontaneousnature and on the other, to his predominant passion for color....The themes proceed from his personal experiences, from his environment:landscapes, allusions to art, religion, to the experience of thePuerto Rican in foreign surroundings, to his constant search forexpression, at the highest level....
He always remained solitary in his work, sculpting his independentmeans of expression, expanding his constant investigation of formand space, the purity of color, the force of texture; from whichcentral point flowered his own, so personal, style. The form,of precise contours, the use of pure and intense colors, the predominanceof his refined drawing although always nervous, dense, lacinghis painting with past styles but utilizing modern pictorial methods,the resonance of color, the texture of great relief and the dramaticeffects of profound contrast, all were resources that took hispainting to a high degree of visionary intensity accentuated byan impactful expression, intuitive and vital....
What previously has been the property only of family, collectorsand friends now has become... the common patrimony of the PuertoRican people. And in the process, reveals to us the universalityof Raphael Collazo's art."28
A friend of Collazo and a collector of hispaintings since 1979, Martin Haggland, now director of RaphaelCollazo Foundation, was director of Art Lobby, a New York exhibitionspace, which presented the artist's first mature paintings, theEarly Tapestries, in the exhibition Recuerdo (I Remember): The Paintings of RaphaelCollazo, Art Lobby, New York, September 29-December 31,1984, extended through April 18, 1985, curated by Ernest Acker-Gherardino.
Raphael Collazo, unpublished statement, AutobiographicalStatement: Raphael A. Collazo, New York, c. 1983.
This photo was taken on November 19, 1985 atthe reception for the R. C. Erpf Gallery's inaugural exhibition,NeoModern, a show of gallery artists. Collazo exhibitedSheWho Knows What Happened There, seen in the background.
Martin Haggland, 1998-1999
The Performers Gesvaldo isa fine example of the figurative drawings of 1969 that immediatelypreceded the artist's earliest collages, in 1970. Such delicate,figurative works were shown with the collages in his first one-personexhibition, at the Galería Santiago in San Juan, PuertoRico in 1971. The collages titled Lady Lovely & Lover and
By 1972, Collazo was assembling boxes with the "intimatenuances"2 of Joseph Cornell's (1903-1972).This homage to a revered artist began before Cornell passed away,at the end of that year, and continued throughout 1973. Amongthese Early Boxes; Swaneria: Marina's Dream is a tributeto Collazo's mother, seen in a bathing suit in the lower left,with plastic swans, ballerinas, parakeets and toy Spanish fansset against a landscape painting and a map of the constellations.The opulent Elephant Palace displays a multifariouscollection of souvenirs and ornamental objects, including a bejeweledelephant. French Castle juxtaposes a Renaissancecastle and a noble steed of the Feudal Age with an IndustrialAge auto junkyard, inducing contemplation about time and the "progress"of civilization. Planetary Box is a reminiscenceon early scientific investigation with references to astronomy,chemistry and electricity. Royal Brighton Swan Box rises toan indefinable poetry.
Appearing to date from the same period are an assemblage,
Against color fields of copper and turquoise, 18th Century Abstract, of 1975,contains an Abstract Expressionist cherub and a collage of eighteenthcentury French figures reminiscent of those in The Best from Vogue and Palace Theater. The Rococo wasa continuing influence on the artist, despite his supposed farewellto it in Goodbye Rococo, of 1986.
The prophetic Annunciation, circa 1976, is collagedin the upper right corner with a print of Leonardo da Vinci'smasterpiece of the same name, the inspiration for this ambitiouswork. Referring to Collazo, Acker-Gherardino wrote: "As hedescribes the painting of this picture: he had done a large renderingof Leonardo's Annunciation, so fascinated was he with thismaster work of the Renaissance painter. Then, he proceeded to'bring it up to date' by overpainting with sgraffito-likegestures. He 'attacked' the rendered work as time attacks everything,symbolically obscuring it in skeins of event, enriching it withexperience."4
In 1980, the artist delighted himself and his friends witha humorously-titled creation, Low Fat & Fish Eye, in whicha goldfish swims upside-down in an aquarium and, in the room behind,a decidedly not "low fat" personage is seated.A yellow "wall" suggests yet another room in an "endless"series. This work, therefore, contains four distinct spatial entities:the aquarium itself, containing its watery realm and inhabitant;the room containing the aquarium; the room containing the figure;and the distant yellow "room", which could just as wellbe the sun-filled world outside, opening onto space and at thesame time containing all of the interior volumes. Collazo thusachieved great depth and, thereby, psychological dimension: anintrospective pondering of the infinite.
Low Fat & Fish Eye was followed by a second seriesof boxes during the latter part of 1980 and throughout 1982. TheLate Boxes include Everything in Life, with an upside-downrécamier sofa, a sideways horse and a harmoniouscrowd of memorabilia; the witty St. Joseph of the Concourse, witha cellophane-covered saint, plastic ivy and lace doilies; theluxurious triptych Whose Favorite Bird was the Peacock?,with artificial leaves and ferns, an ornamental, plastic peacocklandscape, a latticework trellis and peacock feathers; and thebucolic Villa with Saint & Picket Fence,with a rustic dwelling, a field of plastic ferns and eucalyptusbranches, a lath fence and a collaged saint. The latter two worksdemonstrate the artist's movement away from his earlier, strictadherence to the Cornell-like box. My Soul's Desire, a collage witha print of the mysterious and spiritual fifteenth century Frenchtapestry The Lady of the Unicorn and decals of fish anda butterfly, came in 1983.
Collazo's use of collage and assemblage continued in the maturepaintings, of 1984 to 1989, reflecting his love for Rococoembellishment; now elevated to impart a richness of meaning,rather than decorative effect. In the Early Tapestries, suchas Courtand LostGround, he applied model landscaping materials onto hiscanvases; and in the Middle Tapestries, such as Howto Draw & Paint, Archeology and Terrible Lizards, he collaged pagesfrom books and fragments of dime store tapestries. In the LateTapestries, such as Squid and Arc (K), he assembled freeform constructionsand covered them with tarpaper and cutouts from his drawings;and in the Epic Tapestries, he incorporated a surprisingvariety of collage materials -- even the triangular palette fromwhich he had been painting Veduta.5Fragments of wallpaper and the cheap tapestries became transformedinto objects of marvelous beauty in paintings such as Bug World and The Magic Is Back.
Rosemary C. Erpf, the artist's dealer of that time, later wrote:"Collaged elements were also present. Pieces of gold moldingand street-vendors' plastic flowers were presented in the scaleand manner of salon paintings. These decorative fragments wereunfettered by the irony usually associated with kitsch, becauseof the painterly hand in which they were integrated. In a paintingtitled GoodbyeRococo, fragments of velvet printed rugs peaked out underglobs and layerings of paint. Gestural strokes of paint all butcovered pieces of ornamental plastic."6In later work, Collazo formed the paint itself into appliquéelements. Erpf states: "A faint pink figure barely materializesin the pastel-colored... [All Souls' Day]. However, the thrustof this painting is not the figure, but that of painter becomemosaicist. Gluing irregular-shaped discs to the canvas, Raphaeltook his passion for collage and paint to their extreme."7 In later paintings, the discs became shell-like,as in Lepidoptera,or fossil-like, as in You Pushed Me, Devonian Times and New World Rider.
This passion continued to the end of the artist's career, asseen in his last paintings. A Walk in the Woods combines a blueplastic guitar pick, miniature glass flowers on wire stems, glass-headedpins and cabochons. Concordia Domus has thick, rounded,paint masses that resemble stones, small leaves glued togetherto create a convincing effect of pine cones and rough-surfacedlayers of paint that form the illusion of tree bark. Walking Stick contains only thetimeless, stone-like forms more typical of the Black Figure series. Finally, his masterpiece,ForestRendezvous, is composed of ornamental plastic flowersand birds, paint appliqué, metal house numbers, lead rosettesand, surprisingly, a tiny wooden bird that spins around.
Martin Haggland, 1999
Two major themes may be observed in Collazo's early works,before 1984: assemblages inspired by the boxes of Joseph Cornell(1903-1972), which are discussed in The Collages and Boxesof Raphael Collazo, and paintings with a Rococo exuberanceinspired by Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), best known as thepainter of fêtes galantes (scenes of gallantry).These romantic and idealized scenes, in fanciful outdoor settings,depict elaborately costumed ladies and gentlemen in pleasant dalliance.
Rococo, a style of art that originated in early eighteenthcentury France, grew out of the Baroque and is characterizedby profuse ornamentation, such as graceful and delicate shelland foliage patterns. It can also connote immoderate embellishment.Distinctive to the paintings of Watteau is a moderation, a delicacyand a great tenderness of feeling, which undoubtedly attractedthe sensitive, young Collazo, who penned "I Love Watteau" on an early watercolor.
However, the artist did not always follow his finer instincts.Abetted by his facility as a painter, he often lapsed into excessivedecoration. The influence of the Rococo was, thus, a blessingand a curse, reaching a nadir of prettiness in the Floribundiapaintings, of 1983. Fortunately; Collazo was able to overcomethis defect and afterward his lavish color and opulent texturesdeepen, rather than diminish, the power of his work.
Extremely delicate, old-master-like, pencil drawings and watercolors,exemplified by the sepia-toned Maiden and the exquisite ChineseLandscape, preceded a figural series which includes
Many years later, the artist explained: "...my visionswere fantasies of a longed-for past; or of huge rooms, when Iactually lived in small; or of grandiose scenes, when I livedin squalor, paintings that in essence were an escape from an unsatisfactoryand hurtful present: the need to work for a living and paint inmy spare time."2
After the exhibition, Collazo painted many small oil paintings.Two landscapes on panel, Three Graces and Trellis, are the finest and showWatteau's ever-beneficent influence.
LeftBehind For Cythera, of 1975, shows a psychologicaltwist on Watteau's The Embarkation for Cythera (L'Embarquementpour l'Île de Cythère, 1717, Louvre, Paris) andis profoundly introspective. It is unfortunate that such insightwas so often subordinated to mere decorative effect in Collazo'sRococo paintings, a weakness that remained until 1984.
18th Century Abstract, anotherstrong work, contains an Abstract Expressionist cherub and a collageof eighteenth century French figures reminiscent of those in
BlondBronx also demonstrates Collazo's tendency to AbstractExpressionism; while later paintings, such as Fish Lips and Bellezzata Calmata, although expressionistin feeling, became hard-edged. Many works of this period havethe solitary figure recurrent in Collazo's ouevre and the"endless" rooms, originally seen in the Early Rococo.
Acker-Gherardino comments on individual paintings in the artist's1980 exhibition, some as early as 1975:
"Here, with an exuberance of line, an immersion in color,a fascination in creating high-ceilinged, endless rooms for hispersonages to move around in, Collazo follows wherever his fantasiesand abundant talent lead him. He means to charm, to give pleasure.Indeed, this is an art of enjoyment, pure and simple; so that,with Fellini, he might well say: 'Life is a holiday, let us enjoyit together'....
[In Bellezzata Calmata], we see an extravagantlyberibboned and scarved creature in a tiny, enigmatic mask, poisedat the edge of a lake, which dissolves into clouds and mist withthe ever-present floor planks and with perspective lines surroundingher in a prismatic space....
But it remains for a master adequately to describe the atmosphereof a Collazo work. As though looking forward over the decadesand singling out the painting of a large, blue toucan, a ladyand the ghost of a Giotto village [Reality Being Too Thorny for My Great Being];Arthur Rimbaud wrote in his poem Bottom:
'Reality being too thorny for my great personality -- I foundmyself at my lady's, an enormous gray-blue bird soaring towardthe moldings of the ceiling and trailing my wings through theshadows of the evening.'"3
In 1983, the Rococo flourished vibrantly, then to excess, asis its nature. Preceded by Whose Favorite Bird was the Peacock?and TopiaryGarden, the Pleasure Gardens were exhibited inSeptember. "Subjects are animals, birds (many peacocks),ladies and gentlemen in eighteenth century attire, lush vegetationand gazebos, summer houses, rivers, streams, fish, boats, mansions,corridors and arcades arranged according to the precepts of abstract-expressionistspace."4 A Scene From The Life of Giotto,based on that artist's The Vision of Anna, c. 1307, ischaracteristic. Other works include Aquaria and the inward-looking
With that exhibition in progress, Collazo started a seriesof a dozen paintings, including The Astronomy Lesson, High Tea and Floribundia. The "Floribundia"paintings mark the abandonment of "pretty", "nostalgic"subject matter.5 A second series of a dozenpaintings followed immediately -- the first of the Early Tapestries, the beginning of theartist's mature work.
The Rococo never disappeared from the artist's sensibilityand Watteau's influence was not restricted to early works, suchas LeftBehind For Cythera. The Rococo found its genuine,most powerful expression in the rich colors, in the luxurianttextures, including collage and appliqué, and in the many-layeredallusions of Collazo's mature, abstract paintings; and the Frenchpainter never ceased to exert an irresistible fascination. A wonderfulexample is Sardonyx(compare to The Swing, c. 1712, The Museum, Helsinki).
Of the late 1985 and early 1986 paintings, Rosemary C. Erpf,the artist's dealer at that time, wrote: "His work was thenmoving from a lyrical landscape style steeped in Watteau, andlacy with Rococo embellishments, to full palette paintings knitloosely with biomorphic automatic drawings, punctuated by bravadopassages of collage and collage-like surfaces. A key paintingduring this period was Veduta...".6
In Veduta and five other large paintings, "Collagedelements were also present. Pieces of gold molding and street-vendors'plastic flowers were presented in the scale and manner of salonpaintings. These decorative fragments were unfettered by the ironyusually associated with kitsch, because of the painterlyhand in which they were integrated. In a painting titled
Peter Bermingham, curator of the artist's 1992 retrospective,describes the same painting as "a sort of valedictory forCollazo, a fond farewell to the flowery sentiments and stylishmotifs that keynoted much of his work in the early eighties. GoodbyeRococo captivates by its insistent contrasts. For example,a beautifully rendered swampscape is completed by flowers on mustywallpaper; a cloth duck and a sandpaper satellite float upon thescene, while sumptuously painted waves are transformed into fishor 'completed' by dry bark."8
While painting works such as Nymphal Instars I, Complete Metamorphes and WingVenation in middle and late 1986, Erpf observed that:"Raphael moved from dense, jungle-like landscapes packedwith fantastic organisms to airier, richly colored abstractions."9 Specific to Watteau's influence is WatteauBack, a charming outdoor scene with gowned figures, includingone in Watteau's signature pose.
Paseopresents the same theme with a modernist flatness achievedthrough the use of varied shapes that define multiple landscapevignettes. Said Collazo: "I am paradoxically involved ina synthesis of modernist flatness with a simultaneous conveyingof depth."10 Its superb color, diverseshapes and subtle restraint simply cannot prepare us for the extravagantand absolutely delightful work to come -- Paradiso, which "resemblesFrench garden scenes of the late 1700s with its topiary, edgedshrubs, roses and even a mandolin."11Both works date to 1987.
In the following year, Collazo painted the splendorous
"I want to put everything in my paintings...", theartist said, "constantly invent new forms, employ every colorand shade I can concoct, vary my surface, create new texturesand use collage, or rather appliqué elements I make myself."12
Erpf stated: "During 1987 and 1988, he painted many successfulsmaller works on paper. Torsos and personages began to emergefrom these pieces -- at first in the guises of angels and fairies,returning to his homage to Rococo salon paintings [see Fold-a-Rolland PassageII]. But this also paved the way for the later and lastfigurative paintings, The Jokers and Bon Vivant."13
Collazo's final works were painted in his studio in the woodsof the Yaddo art colony. The subdued, forest colors and thickimpasto textures of Concordia Domus demonstrate hiscontinuing love of Rococo richness; Model of Decorum is clearly basedon Watteau's L'Indifférent (c. 1716, Louvre,Paris), proving that artist's life-long influence on him; andForestRendezvous is enriched with kitsch, plastic, walldecorations of flowers and birds. Attached to the wood panelsand overpainted, they give crucial color, form and meaning tothis glorious composition.
Martin Haggland, 2000
Raphael Collazo's works on paper during the Early Tapestriesperiod consist primarily of sketches for paintings, such asFurnishedLandscape, which follows the drawing closely and retainsits spontaneity. Of special interest are a series of six feltpen sketches on tracing paper for the Tunnel series, suchas In the Midst of Life Sketch, uponwhich the painting In the Midst of Life is based.
In the Middle Tapestries period, several 12 x 9 inchworks on paper composed of pencil, charcoal, paint stick and gouacheare sketches for Collazo's large and ambitious paintings, suchas The Beginning of Time. Others standas independent works of art, demarcating the point after whichthe artist no longer relied on sketches to initiate his paintings.Of note is a portfolio of fifty, colored pen drawings that wasdiscovered in Collazo's barn. Examples include 1985 Portfolio, Sheet 1, 1985 Portfolio, Sheet 2, 1985 Portfolio, Sheet 22 and
Many works from that portfolio exhibit the black, freeformshapes characteristic of the Late Tapestries series, asdoes SeaLion, not found in the portfolio. An intimate view ofthe artist's thoughts is revealed in a small notebook. One page,Notebook D, Leaf 6, contains ninedrawings of birds in a series which progresses in style from representationalto completely abstract. Other leafs are of equal interest. Asis true for most artists, works on paper serve as a convenientway to explore new ideas and this notebook gives us a rare insightinto Collazo's thinking process, which he was disinclined to documentin writing or to discuss in person. From such exploration arosesuch innovative works as Squid and Arc (K), which in the center ofits heart shape shows how Collazo, at this time and in the nextperiod, cut out elements from his drawings and collaged them ontohis paintings. Later works on paper are more painterly, such asthe admirable series composed, among others, of Memory of a Dream, Blue Spiral, Remembrance of Hoffman and
Lady of the Swamp displaysthe dense forest and swamp environment seen in Collazo's EpicTapestries paintings, such as Slithy Toves. Contention, Nest and Bug World Series #2 evidence moresubdued and painterly versions of the black, freeform shapes whichoriginated in the previous period. These subtler shapes also appearin the paintings, as in The Magic is Back. Of his workson paper, his art dealer observed:
"At this particular time, Collazo's paintings were informedby an incessant, automatic-type drawing much in the traditionof Matta and early Gorky. Raphael drew constantly when he waspainting, and when he was not. He filled notebooks with penciland ball point pen drawings while watching television at night.Some of the created organic forms appeared in the studio the nextday."1
The works on paper of the Nymphal Instars series exhibitthe characteristics of the paintings: a concern with the emergenceof life and the opening of the soul to its spiritual qualities;symbolized by forms resembling cocoons, chrysalises and the venationof insect wings. The swamp-and-forest effect remains; but now,like a tropical rain forest, the environment contains exotic andbrightly-colored creatures. Flora & Fauna shows these qualities;while Bramble,unique in its monochromaticity, contains the winged-insectforms; and Metamorphoses is the epitome ofthe artist's Nymphal Instars conception, as a comparisonwith the paintings Nymphal Instars II and Wing Venation will reveal.
These works reflect the major shift in Collazo's painting fromlinear forms to impasto shapes and occur in three series: theEarly Healing Gardens with marvelous, varied shapes; theMiddle Healing Gardens with soothing, rounded shapes; andthe Late Healing Gardens with powerful, tumultuous shapes.
The delightful variation in the shapes and colors of theseworks display Collazo's immense invention. The application ofpaint is generous, but rarely impasto. Some of the finest examplesof the Early Healing Gardens include Sweet Dreams, with its Watteau-likemise en scène, including gowned figures in a gardenlandscape, a fragment of a statue with classical drapery and theModernist update of an orange "DeKooning" woman;
During the Middle Healing Gardens period, the artistcreated some of his most important paintings, such as A Healing Garden and All Souls' Day, on 8 x 8 wood panels(composed of two or four smaller panels, bolted together). Thesepaintings are dominated by round, impasto shapes and a white tonalitythat create the soothing, meditative feeling desired by the artist.Upon the closure of his gallery in August 1988, Collazo changedfrom the use of the large panels to sheets of archival paper measuring30 x 22 inches, continuing to apply the paint and impasto muchas before. Although some of the works on paper are sweet and sentimental;those worthy of mention include, among others, Fold-a-Roll, Passage III (compare to A Healing Garden) and
... "I like his work a lot. I like him the best ah becauseof what he does with the paint -- I like thick paint, as of latelyI've been just thinking of swimming in paint; and ah, I'm just-- I love his work. It's very beautiful. It's very lush, and verygenerous and I love that. I feel that I want to be -- I love thatidea: to be generous with paint and to just use as much paintas you like, with no obstacles. This is the way I've come to thinkof my work lately: to use as much as I want or as little as Iwant without any obstacles; and if it costs me hundreds of dollarsto go out and buy paint, I can go out and buy hundreds of dollarsworth of paint and put it on one painting. So I want to be generouswith my materials."2
In the Late Healing Gardens period, Collazo reinvigoratedhis works on paper with a great strength, as in Man in China; Gethsemane, with its strikinglybold colors; Punta Rocosa and Fresher by the Minute. The largerworks in this series are double the previous size and, more importantly,the shapes have become powerful and tumultuous, like geologicaland cosmic forces, moving the Earth and the heavens. At the sametime, the color has lost its former, cloying sweetness and hasbecome robust. This renewal of strength led to the profound andserene works that were to follow -- the Transcendent series-- of which three are known to be overpaintings of Early andMiddle Healing Gardens paintings that presumably no longersatisfied the artist.
For the smaller works of this period, Collazo glued his customary,archival paper onto wood panel. The edges and some uplifted cornersof the paper are visible under the paint. At least some, perhapsall, of the painting was done after the paper was attached. Thisfortunate change in materials provided a stable support for theimpasto that Collazo enjoyed using. Such works include FataMorgana of the Black Figure series, which may becompared to the larger works painted directly on panel, such asNewWorld Rider and Bon Vivant. Of the Yaddo series;AWalk in the Woods, Foris Pax, Concordia Domus and Model of Decorum similarly may becompared to ABower, The Jokers and Forest Rendezvous.
It seems unlikely that an artist of Collazo's talent wouldreturn to expressing his vision in the restricted medium of awork on paper after having fully expressed it in a painting. Itis more likely that he would try to expand upon his vision, incorporatingevolved and new elements into his next series of paintings. Ifwe accept the premise that Collazo used works on paper as a convenientway to evolve his ideas and explore new ones, we arrive at a usefulprinciple in determining the chronology of his works on paper:that they immediately preceded the paintings of a similar style.Therefore, the work on paper Metamorphoses may be viewed as abreakthrough that, in turn, led to the major paintings of theNymphal Instars series, such as Nymphal Instars II. Such an approach,combined with the "evolutionary" principle that intermediateworks combine elements of immediately earlier and immediatelylater works, may prove beneficial in improving the chronologyof Collazo's works on paper and, thereby, arriving at a betterunderstanding of his artistic development.
Martin Haggland, 2002
This essay is an account of that work, examining the evolutionof his figures from their humble origins into the powerful expressionof inward searching, love and joy that radiates from the canvasesof the artist's final years. Although there were strong premonitions,those figures did not achieve a sustained expressiveness until1984. Beginning in that year, the representational façadesgave way. Rather than the outward appearance of the figure, theanimating and psychological forces within came to be the subjectof Collazo's art, as powerfully stated in Bon Vivant, of 1989.
Collazo's earliest work, mostly produced while he was a studentat the School of Visual Arts, in New York, shows a singular interestin the human figure in all of its particular manifestations ofsex and age. While there is some degree of abstraction, the worksare primarily representational.
The theme of the solitary figure, usually standing, was toreappear continually throughout Collazo's oeuvre, withincreasing pscyhological profoundness. However, over the years,the representational and particular depiction of individuals thatis seen in these early works changed into an abstract and universaldepiction of the essence of all human beings.
Girlin a Landscape, from the artist's last year inhigh school, is his earliest documented work. No. 724 and No. 599, although undocumented,are believed to date from just afterward.
No.844 ["Le Grande Caggia"] depicts ErnestAcker-Gherardino, who was to have a long and significant influenceon Collazo's artistic development. This portrait is believed tohave been drawn soon after Collazo met the older and, at thattime, more accomplished painter in late 1965 or early 1966.
Collazo was a natural, without a sense of art history, whereasAcker-Gherardino was a graduate of Cooper Union, where he hadacquired a comprehensive knowledge of artists and art movements.His advanced Cubistic figure-and-landscape abstractions had astrong effect on the younger artist over the next two years. Ingeneral, Collazo was easily influenced by other artists and adoptedthe more experienced artist's approach for a while, in the sameway that he was later inspired by the Abstract Expressionists,particularly Rauschenberg, Pollick and deKooning1,the Italian masters "from Cimabue to deChirico"2, Jean-Antoine Watteau and the other eighteenthcentury French artists3, Joseph Cornell4 and, more contemporaneously, in the 1980s,by the strong biological basis of Terry Winters' work, reflectedin Collazo's Nymphal Instars series, of 1986.5
In 1966, living with Acker-Gherardino and observing his approachto painting, Collazo became analytical. He strove for increasinglyabstract figural compositions, using simplified planes of color,in paintings such as No. 257 and No. 079. The correspondences betweenthe latter and Aggregations, of two decades later,illustrates the artist's comment in the year of this work:
"I have now drawn back, so that what formerly occupiedan entire canvas may now be only a segment of a larger landscape."6
The figure, by necessity, exists in an environment of somesort, be it a landscape or interior, and Collazo took a greatinterest in that setting. Even the paintings without figures areof interest because they demonstrate Collazo's approach to thelandscape in which, at a later time, his figures would exist.Therefore, this essay will consider those environments -- withor without figures -- ranging from the semi-abstract or representationallandscapes and interiors of the early years, to the artist's lateand grand Baroque compositions of vast and ever-receding space,to the mist-shrouded worlds of his final year.
In 1967, colorful landscapes came to the fore, exemplifiedby No.365, LandscapeII and No.40. They display a concept of space forged by AnalyticalCubism, undoubtedly the influence of the paintings that he sawAcker-Gherardino creating.
Collazo was trying to work out an abstract means of expressingthe landscape. Particularly intriguing is the relationship betweenthe early canvases and those painted two decades later. In theearly pieces, the artist was struggling to find a means to expressthe landscape abstractly; in the later ones, it came naturallyto him.
Over those twenty years, a work such as No. 365 evolved into a Paseo, populated with numerous abstractfigures. In Landscape II, one can observe theorigin of the multiple landscape vignettes that became fully developedin For the Good of Us All and the otherHealingGardens. In those works, which have a freer, more painterlytechnique, the formerly uninhabited landscape is now filled witha multitude of figural shapes. In No. 40 the space is already brokenup in Cubistic fashion. The difference between this and the worksof two decades later, such as Sepia Sojourn and Instars II, is that the simplifiedgeometric shapes would become lush, painterly ones.
Although most of the 1967 series are landscapes without figures,there are some figural works, such as No. 725 and No. 178.
The year of 1968 brought more freedom with the brush and asoftening of the hard edges formerly seen. From works such asSemi-AbstractHouse and No. 600, Collazo moved to No.743, an isolated gem of an abstract painting. Certainpaintings suggest the influence of Watteau. No. 527 ["I Love Watteau"],a warm and soft-edged watercolor, is even inscribed "I LoveWatteau". It seems to mark the beginning of his continuinginfatuation with the French artist.
In 1969, Collazo created delicate drawings and watercolorsthat show the influence of Watteau or, at least, the eighteenthcentury French painters. Maiden is, perhaps, the finest ofthe pencil drawings. Among works of this period is a charmingcircus scene, The Performers Gesvaldo. In
Not only idyllic garden scenes, but fanciful Rococo interiorswith arched openings leading from one room to another were commonsettings for Collazo's figures, as in Picture Box. He elaborated on themotif in 1979. However, the Rococo influences were to lead Collazoto an overly decorative style that he had to resist.
After the first bout with Cubistic landscapes, the artist revertedto a conventional concept of space, while he experimented withother approaches. The Cubist lessons were long abandoned, butnot forgotten.
In 1971, small paintings of Puerto Rico's green hills, suchas No.775 occupied the artist for a while, probably inspiredby his visit to the island for the inauguration of his first one-personexhibition. The space in all of these works is strictly representational.No.537, though atypical because of the interior and figure,is one of the most interesting and obviously inspired by the Italianmasters.
By the next year, the landscapes became hard-edged and geometric;many with rectangular shapes reminiscent of Hans Hoffman's canvases.All are devoid of figuration. Key themes revolve around scientificexploration of distant places on and off Earth, and there is thevastness of space, never before depicted by Collazo. The mostimportant painting is the ambitious Jansky's Aerial, whose subject isthe first radio telescope. Arctic Probe seems to continue themountain motif, but in a geometricized form with triangular shapes,while No.186 transforms an abstract, rectangular composition intoa Manhattan landscape, by adding the recognizable profile of theEmpire State Building.
Afterwards, Collazo created a series of boxes inspired by JosephCornell (see: The Collages and Boxes of Raphael Collazo).Based on his subsequent work, it appears that Collazo then attendedlife drawing classes at the Art Students' League to ground hiswork more solidly in an understanding of the human figure. Itwould take another decade before his figures would speak forcefullyto the viewer.
From his visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art when he wasgrowing up, Collazo became quite conversant with the Italian masters.7 In 1986, the artist stated: "I am wellversed in the Italian Masters from Cimabue to de Chirico and theyhave been a constant inspiration in my work." and "Iuse renaissance space, both atmospheric and geometric and strivefor a grandeur of arrangement and gesture in my forms. By thisI hope to achieve a timeless and limpid environment in which theeye can wander."8 In a 1987 interview,he mentions the "Italian masters of the quattrocento throughthe fifteen hundreds".9 And, in 1988,he stated: "The things I think a painting should achieve,in my era, or in any era, are in the Italian masters, from Cimabueto de Chirico, in Giotto, in Giorgione, Bellini..."10
The major effect of the Italian masters on Collazo seems tohave been an ambition to create paintings worthy of that exaltedtradition. However; in a few cases, more specific references canbe found. Of these, The Annunciation, inspired by Leonardoda Vinci's painting of the same name (Annunciation, c. 1472-1475, temperaon wood, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy) is the most obviousand best documented. Leonardo's fantastic trees, in particular,were to appear frequently in Collazo's landscapes. Collazo's Expressionistversion is discussed below. A Scene From The Life of Giotto isbased on that artist's The Vision of Anna (c. 1307, fresco,Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy). Others paintings where the influenceof the Italian masters seem evident, if elusive to document, areThreeGraces, set in an Arcadian landscape, The Ladies, in a dark and broodingone, and Italy for You, painted upon theartist's return from a June 1984 tour in Italy. Perhaps, it isnot too great an exaggeration to describe The Jokers as Collazo's modern-dayMona Lisa.
The years of 1975 and 1976 were formative for Collazo, bothpersonally and artistically. After 10 years of living with Acker-Gherardino,he asserted his independence by moving into this own apartmentat 253 West 91st Street in Manhattan and living by himself forthe first time in his life. Using the apartment as his studio,he began a series of paintings reflecting his assimilation ofAbstract Expressionism. These were prophecies of his mature work,as Collazo later acknowledged.11 Amongthe Expressionists, Collazo was most attracted to Rauschenberg,then to de Kooning and Pollack:
"... when I was growing up in New York, I used to -- Iremember liking Rauschenberg a lot and as a teenager and reallylooking -- and seeking his work out in the museums and -- andde Kooning and Jackson Pollack, I used to love his work. EspeciallyRauschenberg. It really meant a lot to me and I remember likinghis work. Everything about it, the way he applied paint, the texture,the space, threw paint. That was very important: I realized thatartists like that were smearing paint around and just gettingin there with lots of paint."12
Collazo's figural works of this period include Left Behind For Cythera, 18th Century Abstract, Aurora Borealis, and Emergence. The stairs, zigzags,pole-like structure and Expressionist figure of Aurora Borealis seems to presageNekofiCerkafi. Landscapes include Southold Fen, By A River and Wadi Medani. By A River has a remarkable semblanceto one of the artist's final paintings: A Bower.
Along with these significant achievements, the artist producedwhat might be called his "masterpieces": two paintingsof hitherto unimagined size, which synthesized the diverse elementsof his earlier work and completely new ones, such as a giganticparrot and what has been described as the "ghost of a Giottovillage".13
Collazo's advance to epic-sized canvases seems to call foran external stimulus. Perhaps, it was the inspiration of a tripto England and Europe in 1974. Or, perhaps, a feeling of independencein being on his own for the first time in his life. Or, perhaps,his alcoholism, which may have freed him from his inhibitions,but exerted a negative effect on his life and art until 1981.Likely, it was all three.