Alejandro Otero (1921-1990)

Acquired from the artist by the present owner

Caracas, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Alejandro Otero: Retrospectiva, 1985

This work is in good condition overall. The canvas is unlined and well-stretched, and the media layer is stable. Minor wear likely from a previous frame is present along the extreme upper edge of the canvas. A fine horizontal grey scratch is present in the lower right quadrant, measuring approximately three inches in length, located approximately five inches inward from the right edge of the work. Under ultraviolet examination, a few isolated areas of in-painting become apparent, specifically: one circular area approximately two inches in diameter located in the upper right quadrant; two circular areas in the center measuring ½ inch in diameter each; two isolated areas in the lower right corner and edge measuring one inch each, and one fine diagonal line near the left edge measuring one inch in length.
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The 1950s were highly productive and decisive years for Alejandro Otero. His first achievements in the field of abstraction were the Líneas de color sobre fondo blanco (Color lines on a white background), a culmination of his earlier Post-Cubist simplifications. By 1952 he was attracted to Mondrian and pure geometry; this interest, among other things, would lead him to the creation of the Coloritmos in 1955, arguably his most significant achievement in painting.

After eight years in Caracas, Alejandro Otero returned to Paris in 1960. On his way there, he visited Madrid and Toledo. There, he was transformed by Doménikos Theotokópoulos, most widely known as El Greco. In his abundant correspondence with Alfredo Boulton early in 1961, we find crucial words that help clarify many of the ideas behind what was later referred to as Los Monocromos, the Monochromatic paintings.

Otero stated: "It's been a great experience to be face to face with the 'idols' of the past, I have found just in some details of El Greco's paintings that enigma, better, that this is the enigma that corresponds to what makes me a painter...I already see the dimension and the color of my future canvases."¹ 

While it may be unexpected to associate El Greco's brilliantly modulated draperies, executed in primary colors, from the developments in Otero's studio in Paris a few weeks later, the experience in Toledo marked his work thereafter: "I have been working fiercely since January 18, practically secluded, trying to make a material "speak," after having abandoned it ten years before…/…the canvases hold together well."²

Each painting of the series (perhaps 25 in total) exhibit variations of one color. The artist worked the canvases with thin layers of paint showing subtle, diagonal evanescent brushstrokes. Otero’s highly spiritual paintings honoring El Greco are now revered as some of his most solemn and fundamental works.

1 Alfredo Boulton, Alejandro Otero, Caracas: O. Ascanio Editores, 1994, p. 103.
2 Ibid, p. 104.