Próspero Carbonell – The Lyric Journey of the Andean Landscape: A Transregional Look at Gonzalo Ariza’s Painting

During his trips to Japan, Gonzalo Ariza (1912-1995), a landscape painter from Bogotá that was educated at the Escuela de Bellas Artes, had contact with works of Japanese masters that changed his view on landscape and art henceforth. Although historiography has established the evident influence of Japanese art in Ariza’s oeuvre, referring to the works of Hokusai, this research looks at the migration of Shansui hua or landscape painting from China to Japan, and from Japan to Colombia in order to broaden the understanding of the Andean master’s works as an indirect continuation of that genre. The unique intersection of Western and Eastern traditions, with a Southern take, present in Ariza’s work resulted in mysterious landscapes that appear suspended in time, which demand a nuanced look that contemplates its colliding perceptions of temporality and space. An analysis of some major works, and other less-known watercolors, will demonstrate the complexities of the Andean painter’s foggy pieces.

Próspero Carbonell (1988) has an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from the Universidad de Los Andes (2011), and is also a graduate Alumnus from both the Masters in Art History (2019) and Fine Arts (2020) of the same university. He currently works with the Museo Nacional de Colombia at the education department, and as an art history teacher at the Universidad EAN. He participated in the 3^rd version of the Transregional Academy with the project “The Mural Paintings of the Founder of Tunja’s Manor: Marks of Nobility Viewed from the Perspective of a “Global Renaissance”. Main areas of research: Latin American Art, Colonial Art and Postcolonial studies, Landscape Painting, XIX Century Colombia, Chinese Art, Japanese Art, Art and Politics and Global Art History.