Painting from an archetypal perspective

Hope you are all doing well! Here I am again with an update from my studio. Currently I'm working on a series of paintings on panels and triptychs that I call "Neo-Colonial Retablos" for they reflect on past colonial history in the Americas while addressing more contemporary issues in response to Neo-Colonialism. For this I have adopted an archetypal approach for which I am studying the 22 Major Arcanas from the Tarot. After doing some research and already starting this exciting new art project, I am sharing with you some of my insights concerning the study of archetypes in the Arts, Tarot and our present culture.

 

Arcana 21 (2010) Oil on canvas 18" x 24"

By Patrick McGrath Muñiz

 

Arcana 21 "The World" from the Tarocco Della Rocca (1821)

 

The Tarot, a pack of playing cards often used for divination purposes besides serving as an appropriate metaphor for our current global economy based on speculation, provides us with a set of images that refers directly to the notion of archetypes. An archetype is a transcendental model collectively inherent and universally present in all societies, art and cultures. By re-interpreting the imagery from the Tarot on “retablos” with the present Neo-colonial paradigm in mind I am able to paint and address these issues from an archetypal perspective.

 

El Politico (The Politician) (Les Politicien) Oil and metal leaf on wood 11" x 24"

from the series: "Mcolonial Citizens" By Patrick McGrath Muñiz
Available at Petrus Gallery

 

 

The 22 Major Arcana from the Tarot of Marseille (1748)

The Tarot I am using as a model is one of the oldest surviving card packs, the Tarot of Marseille. Most modern decks derive from this one. Even though the Visconti-Sforza from 15th century Italy is the oldest surviving deck,  unfortunately some of its cards are missing. The Tarot of Marseille from 1748 was the first Tarot to be widely used and copied throughout Europe and brought to the Americas.

Madonna de los Misterios (2012) Oil on canvas 30" x 24"

By Patrick McGrath Muñiz

Available at Jane Sauer Gallery

 

 

El Loco (The Fool)(Le Mat) (2011) Oil and metal leaf on panel 10.5 x 14.5"

 by Patrick McGrath Muñiz (Private Collection)

 

The Tarot is composed of 21 Major Arcana plus a card representing "The Fool" and with no number, making them 22 in total. To this one would add the 56 Minor Arcana or court cards making the whole set a total of 78 cards. But for the moment I will concentrate my attention on the 22 major Arcana or Major Archetypes as I like to call them. Carl Gustav Jung was the first to link the Tarot with the idea of archetypes as he saw these images as symbolic images that could be used for other purposes other than divination or entertainment. These images besides being reflections on European culture by the time of the conquest and colonization of the Americas can be seen as an encyclopedia of universal archetypes that are still relevant to this day.

 

 

Sanctus Arquetipus (2010) Ink and watercolor on paper 12" x 12"

By Patrick McGrath Muñiz

 

 

 The Archetypal Neo-Colonial Wheel (2011-12)
Oil and metal leaf on Panel 28" x 28"

By Patrick McGrath Muñiz (Private Collection)

 

I have been reading about the history, origins, uses and esoteric value about this enigmatic card game. As an artist, I could not resist the temptation of creating my own cards, which I already started doing. After feeling fascination, confusion, skepticism, disbelief, irreverence now I am starting to understand the multidimensionality of this art. One may consider its polysemic nature as a starting point for a great adventure in the exploration of the universal themes and archetypes that have occupied the human mind. This is what brought me closer to the Tarot and why I’m actively working with it and using as a creative tool.

Divine Inspiration (2010) Egg tempera on Amate paper 23" x 15"

By Patrick McGrath Muñiz (Private Collection)

 

Hopefully every week I will post a brief article about each particular archetype in question. I hope  some of you out there will discover what I already am discovering myself: the deep significance and value of these mysteries as it greatly enhances our understanding of art, literature,  culture, history, nature, spirituality, and even ourselves. Independently of how one may respond to the occult and divination uses that have made the Tarot famous, the subject is still very interesting to study and see how it can be applied to painting. As with any other subject it is always good to keep an open mind and see how things really work. In my case I am using the Tarot as not only as a creative tool for self-discovery but as means of painting from an archetypal perspective.

 

 

 

Color in the 18th century from Goya to Campeche

Here's a brief analysis I have been working on in relation to the pigments used by artists in the late eighteenth century from Spain to Puerto Rico. The two painting palettes I have been studying are those of Jose Campeche from Puerto Rico and Francisco Goya from Spain. Both were contemporaries but did not have any contact with each other. While Campeche painted virgins, saints and portraits for rich patrons, Goya did these plus paintings with loaded with social and political commentary, macabre, witchcraft content. It would be quite unfair to compare creative output and achivement between these two painters but there is an interesting link to be explored between these two painters: Color.

 

Portrait of Goya by Vicente Lopez y Potaña (1827)

 

 

Portrait of Campeche by Francisco Oller

 

Both of these paintings done by other artists after Goya and Campeche catch a glimpse at their palettes. From these and from restoration done of their work we can now now what pigments they used in the oil paintings. As you can see neither of these artists used a closed, scale controlled palette. Though you can say both had a limited color palette which included most if not all earth colors known in their time.

 

Closed Palette

 

Open Palette

It is not difficult to find a number of web sources listing the colors used by Goya. There is a interesting website I found that sells Natural Pigments.Their list as most others is based on  the research of Frederic Schmid in his painting treatise The Practice of Painting (1948). The colors used by Goya according to Schmid are as follows:

1. White Lead (Flake White)

2. Naples Yellow

3. Yellow Ochre

4. Raw Umber

5. Burnt Umber

6. Burnt Sienna

7. Venetian Red

8. Brown Ochre

9. Light Red

10. Vermilion

11.Crimson Lake

12.Green Earth (Terre Verte)

13. Cobalt Blue

14. Ivory Black

 

In the case of Campeche, Lydia A. Quiquley in "Jose Campeche and his time" gives a list of the pigments discovered in the microanalytical examination of several of his works. The list provided is as follows:

 

1. White Lead

2. Yellow Ochre

3. Iron Earth Yellow (Gold Ochre or Transparent Yellow Ochre)

4. Raw Sienna

5. Burnt Sienna

6-7. Iron Oxide Earth Brown in different states of hydration (Raw Umber & Burnt Sienna)

8. Madder (Rose Madder)

9. Vermilion

10. Prussian Blue

11. Bone Black

12. Charcoal Black

 

A painting palette that emulates the coloring of Spanish Colonial paintings of the late eighteenth century should include the colors of either of these two lists or a combination of both. A modern day approach to accomplishing this and my own color palette would be the following in this order:

 

1. Lead White (or Titanium white if you want to keep away from heavy metals)

2. Naples Yellow

3. Yellow Ochre Light

4. Gold Ochre

4. Raw Sienna

5. Burnt Sienna

6. Burnt Umber

7. Raw Umber

8. Cadmium Red Light (Substituting Vermilion)

9.Rose Madder, Alizarim Crimson or  my personal favorite: Gamblin'sPink Brown

10. Cobalt Blue ( a light blue)

11. Prussian Blue (a deep dark blue)

12. Ivory Black

 

As part of my research I have been studying paintings and retablos of the Spanish Colonial Americas, particularly those of the time of Campeche and Goya because I find it that quite relevant and similar to our own in many ways. Many of the socio-economic dilemmas experimented by our globalized world were experienced by the Colonies and there seemed to be an inevitable revolution about to explode not only in the Americas but in Europe. We today find ourselves in a very similar context with a Neo-Colonial world economy about to collapse. By quoting the colors and appearance of the paintings of the colonial period I am commenting on the present condition of global cultural and economic colonization.

 

 

 

 

Notes on Latin American Colonial Painting: On Color

As part of my research and studio project I am currently studying Latin American colonial paintings particularly from the 18th century. There is much to be studied in this overlooked field. The work of many painters in the Spanish colonies besides being intriguing products of cultural imperialism, also stand out as primal models of  forged hybrid identites that still define our countries to this day.  There are two paintings that have caught my attention  The Virgin of Rosary by Puerto Rican Painter Jose Campeche and The Virgin of Guadalupe by Mexican Painter Sebastian Salcedo. The two are images of madonnas painted with virtually the same colors were also painted the same year (1779) . These visual links in history provide interesting hints on the pigments these painters used in their oil paintings. Here's a brief analysis of the colors they must have used.

 

 

We can see that Salcedo and Campeche's blues are very similar and in fact quite often we see this cool greenish hue blue in European and Latin American paintings from the 18th century. The pigment in question is Prussian blue, invented in the early 1700's. It is one of the first synthetic colors to be produced and it substituted the expensive Lapis lazuli. Jose Campeche is known to have used this pigment in his paintings. We can also see it widely used the work by Francisco Goya.

 

By the time of the conquest and colonization of the Americas, Europeans discovered a pigment extracted from the dried bodies of insects and was used by the Aztecs as a dye.  The insect is known as cochineal and the color they got from it was a beautiful alizarin carmine like deep red. Today it is used in cosmetics and food under the name of Red 40. This pigment was widely used as an oil pigment by the time Campeche and Salcedo were active so it is probable that they might have used it in their work. The pigment is known as Indian Lake or Carmine lake. Rose madder would be the other option. Today Alizarin Crimson or Quinacridone Red have far better lightfastness so they are recommended above the others.

Here's a very brief analysis of the colors used by Jose Campeche on this painting:

 

1. A mixture of Burnt Umber and white
2. Rose Madder and White
3. Burnt Umber, Yellow Ochre and White
4. Yellow Ochr and white
5. Prussian Blue and a hint of Black
6. Raw Umber and White

Both  artists were using a very limited palette  like most painters in the Spanish colonies the selection most likely would include the following :

 

1. Lead White

2. Carbon Black

3. Raw Sienna

4. Burnt Sienna

5. Burnt Umber

6. Raw Umber

7. Yellow Ocher

8. Vermillion Red

9. Rose Madder (or some other deep red lake color)

10. Prussian Blue

 

Some variations to this list may be found but this seems to be the most common palette for the painters in the Americas by the 1700's. Most of these colors I already use in my work except for the blues and reds which I will adopt to emulate the late colonial visual language in order to communicate my ideas about neo-colonialism.  I hope to share more insights like this in future posts.