Victor Hugo Zayas: The River Paintings
There is, quite simply, an oceanic monumentality in the work of Victor Hugo Zayas, a palpable ambition and courageousness, coupled with a thoughtful strength and humanity. His canvases catch the essence of his subjects, and they speak to our soul. I don’t exaggerate. Zayas is a modern master and also that rarity, an artist who can evoke sensation and mood on a scale that’s larger than life.
Several years ago his paintings were shown at Gallery C in Hermosa Beach, and the memory of encountering them on that occasion has never faded, whereas the work of most other artists has dimmed by comparison. That’s because these pictures have intangible as well as tangible substance.
Zayas has had many shows since, but a prestigious display of his recent work can be seen through Feb. 7 at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach.
Born in Tijuana in 1961 and raised in Mazatlán, Victor Hugo Zayas has lived and worked in Los Angeles for nearly 30 years, his current studio alongside the Los Angeles River in the railyard district northeast of downtown Los Angeles. However, it was a pivotal trip to Europe at the age of 18 that sealed the deal on his artistic destiny. He visited the great museums and confronted the great painters–Goya, Titian, Turner, Cézanne, etc.–from centuries past.
The work at MoLAA is primarily comprised of two series, one devoted to the L.A. River, which flows through the heart of Los Angeles and empties into the ocean at Long Beach, and another that’s referred to as “The Grid” series, which can be interpreted in many ways, as an abstract aerial view of the city, for example, with its crisscrossing of roadways, overpasses, power lines and railroad tracks. It is as if the urban landscape has been dissolved into the natural from which it sprang.
In his catalogue essay, Wade Graham conveys his impression of the paintings: “Suffusing all of the work is an unrestrained romanticism, a celebration in part of the aesthetic and emotional potential of the city and its stacked and layered physical forms and shifting moods.”
And yes there is, as Graham points out, an unrestrained romanticism that is part and parcel with these pictures. Zayas’ palette glows darkly, the paint thick and heavy, as if Turner and Soutine have merged into one, while at the same time we can sense the physicality of his countrymen Siqueiros and Orozco. There is a suspended force or power in these canvases, but it is also a sublime force, sturdy, solid, yet graceful.
There may be some incentive to talk about the ecology of the Los Angeles River, or the effects of the drought or of El Niño when discussing this current body of work, but we should not reduce our appreciation of the art to that kind of dialogue because these pictures soar far and beyond that. The catalogue essay feels duty-bound to linger on this matter, perhaps sensing that an educational aspect is also necessary. It isn’t. When we talk about Delacroix or Géricault we don’t veer off and speculate about the treatment of horses or where the saddles were made. With some artists we should leave out the academic and simply plunge into the work as we would plunge into a waterfall.
These large canvases may also remind us of other artists, and to me the work resonates with the paintings of Anselm Kiefer, Thérèse Oulton, and even Long Beach artist Marie Thibeault (although
her palette is lighter), but there’s yet another artist whose name I hesitate to mention because the comparison may seem simplistic or forced.
Victor Hugo Zayas reminds me, strangely enough, of his namesake Victor Hugo. Yes, the novelist who wrote Les Misérables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Toilers of the Sea. I’ve read these books, spent hours in the Maison de Victor Hugo located in the Place des Vosges in Paris, and have seen firsthand the Channel Islands, where Victor Hugo spent years in exile on the island of Guernsey off the Normandy coast. Furthermore, Hugo was a visual artist as well, I have a book devoted to his drawings and watercolors, and there is a tone in these Hugos that’s not so unlike the tone in Zayas’ paintings. There is a grandness of scale to be found in the output of both men.
The MoLAA show contains about 50 works, and in addition to the canvasses there are watercolor sketches and a few examples of the artist’s “Astrophysiological structures,” referred to as self-portraits. These are thin, painted metal bars, many of them several feet high, that project at different angles, 3D constellations that echo the two-dimensional “Grid” series.
Zayas created the majority of the work that’s on display within the last few years, with the L.A. River paintings predominantly from 2015. As an entity, it’s an impressive statement, and I am convinced we will be seeing and hearing a great deal more from this prolific and extremely talented artist in the years ahead.
Victor Hugo Zayas: The River Paintings can be see through February 7 at the Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach. Hours, Sun., Wed., Thurs., and Sat. from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Fri. from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Admission, $9 general; $6 students and seniors. Members and children under 12 free. Free on Sunday, sponsored by Target. (562) 437-1689 or go to molaa.org. ER
