There’s something about the majesty of self-taught artists that makes you stop in your tracks and think. All the old masters—Titian, Raphael, Da Vinci—had their apprenticeships in their youth and worked as assistants to renowned artists in order to learn their trade before participating in workshops and learning from other painters, but self-taught artists then and now relied on books and self-paced study in order to achieve greatness. And greatness is le mot juste when it comes to the arresting and magnificent works of Brazilian artist Gustavo Nazareno, whose show “Orixás: Personal Tales on Portraiture” is on at Opera Gallery in London until November 9.
You might call Nazareno a self-taught master—his artistic journey began with books, but the sixteen paintings and twenty-five charcoal drawings on view show a range of influences, academic and otherwise. He’s inspired by the characteristics and traditions of Afro-Latin religions (Candomblé, Santería and Voodoo). Depicted are several deities, proud and elusive, declining to meet the viewer’s gaze. Like figures of the Renaissance, they wear sumptuous silks and satins, with the folds in the fabric rendered visible through light and shade. Along with Renaissance and Baroque painting, Nazareno takes his inspiration from the aesthetics of fashion photography and haute couture. His figures are statuesque and willowy, with elongated limbs and beautiful poise, and they are placed in such a way that they, like models, dominate the canvases, commanding our attention while remaining silent, glamorous and mysterious.
More broadly, Nazareno’s work examines the use of religious iconography, society’s proclivity towards worship and the space between good and evil that the Candomblé religion celebrates within human nature. This is depicted vividly by light and shadow: while the deities gaze silently from their paintings, the backgrounds (“not real, but imagined,” Nazareno explained to me) are barren, lonely and bereft of human activity. No buildings are shown—in their place are rocky terrains and cool-toned landscapes. The muted colors of the backgrounds serve to render the foregrounds more vivid; the deities depicted really jump out at you with their jewel-toned robes and smooth skins.
As an artist, Gustavo Nazareno is remarkable for his process: it involves using textile arts and set design to create Tableau Vivants, which then serve as references for his visual depictions. It was explained to me that Nazareno employs maquettes to work out the poses of his figures, rather than living models or photographs, and then drapes swathes of fabric around the maquettes to see where the light falls. Through a unique painting and drawing technique in which Nazareno applies charcoal dust with his fingertips on paper in his dark studio lit by only candlelight, his works evoke a mysterious tenebrism in form and content. Eschewing electrical light, Nazareno gives us insight into how the old Renaissance masters might have worked.
Yet in terms of narrative, Nazareno’s depicted works are not based on any book or literary source. Rather, the artist’s work is based on fables that he writes, which draw inspiration from the pantheon of Orixás—a system of entities worshipped in religions in some parts of Africa and Latin America. “He’s giving serious side-eye,” Nazareno jokes to me when I remark that one of his deities refuses to meet the viewer’s gaze. According to the teachings of Orixás, the orishas are spirits sent by the supreme creator, Olodumare, to help humankind and to teach us to be successful on Ayé (Earth). Based on the native religion of the Yoruba people, most orishas are said to have previously existed in òrún—the spirit world—and then became Irúnmọlẹ̀—divine beings incarnated as humans on Earth. The orishas found their way to most of the New World as a result of the transatlantic slave trade and are now expressed in practices as varied as Haitian Vodou, Santería, Candomblé, Trinidad Orisha, Umbanda and Oyotunji, among others. Their influence is geographically widespread. The concept of òrìṣà is similar to those of deities in the traditional religions of the Bini people of Edo State in southern Nigeria, the Ewe people of Benin, Ghana, and Togo, and the Fon people of Benin.
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And so “Orixás: Personal Tales on Portraiture” invites deep contemplation and reflection. It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to be face-to-face with deities as noble as the Orixás, and Nazareno’s Renaissance-quality works have the power to enthrall and delight even the most jaded and hard-hearted of viewers. Your eyes cannot help but follow the lines of the composition—to glide along the elegant physical forms of these divine personages, with their statuesque poise and glowing skin. Just don’t expect the artist’s orishas to meet your gaze. If you do, you will find yourself disappointed.
Gustavo Nazareno “Orixás: Personal Tales on Portraiture” at Opera Gallery in London through November 9.