Some paintings decorate; this one radiates. This painting by Sylvia Ordo\u00f1ez is an early work by one of the most celebrated painters of northeastern Mexico.<\/p>\n
Painted in 1981, the same year Ordo\u00f1ez returned to Mexico after studying printmaking at the Escola de Llotja in Barcelona and mounted her solo exhibition at Galer\u00eda Mir\u00f3 in Monterrey, this painting captures the artist at a fascinating moment of transition, before the lush fruits and still lifes of her mature period. Sylvia Ordo\u00f1ez (b. Monterrey, 1956) studied in Paris, at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, and in Barcelona, and won first prize at the 5th Congress of Pictorial Art in Monterrey while still in her twenties. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including *Women in Mexico* at the National Academy of Design in New York (1990), ARCO Madrid, Art Chicago, and the Katonah Museum. In 1993, she was honored with a retrospective at MARCO, Museo de Arte Contempor\u00e1neo de Monterrey. She is the daughter of acclaimed painter Efr\u00e9n Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez, but her artistic voice is entirely her own: where her father worked with bold color and strong composition, Sylvia cultivated an intimate, sensorial style steeped in nature that has made her one of the defining artists of Nuevo Le\u00f3n.<\/p>\n
The work is an original painting on canvas adhered to a Masonite board, a support consistent with the artist\u2019s documented practice of working on canvas mounted on board, often using oil and encaustic (pigment suspended in wax). The matte, waxy depth of the surface, layered mottling, and incised line work visible here are highly characteristic of her encaustic-on-canvas-on-board works from this period. Signed \u201cSylvia Ordo\u00f1ez 1981\u201d by the artist at lower left. Presented in its original wooden frame.<\/p>\n
What first draws the eye is the way the central figure seems to grow upward from the bottom of the composition. The vertical axis functions almost like a stem, a spine, or a backbone. Successive diagonal lines branch from it, creating an almost geometric structure. Ordo\u00f1ez seems to have deliberately erased the boundaries between animal, plant, landscape, and human figure.<\/p>\n
If we look at the central form from the middle upward, we can imagine a fish seen head-on, its mouth open. The vertical axis becomes its body, while the diagonals can be read as scales or as the internal divisions of the body.\nThe central structure also bears a striking resemblance to a leaf seen from the front: the central axis becomes the main vein, while the diagonal lines become secondary veins. Yet if we mentally extend the form downward, the leaf begins to transform into a tree.\n\n\nAt the same time, if we take the upper circle as a head, the central structure can become a human figure dressed in a triangular robe. The cross- or star-like forms on either side of the head recall the open hands of the solar and ritual figures of Rufino Tamayo, an artist whose influence Ordo\u00f1ez shares.\n\nIf we read those forms as three stars in the night sky, the composition takes on an almost cosmic structure.<\/p>\n
It is a painting of matter and metamorphosis, in which a central, almost archetypal form oscillates between the vegetal, the animal, the human, and the cosmic.\n\nIts earthy palette\u2014ochres, oranges, muted pinks, whites, and grays\u2014makes it feel like an ancient image uncovered beneath layers of time. The incisions and abrasions reinforce the sensation that we are looking at a sign that might have emerged from a dream, a memory, or an imaginary culture.\n\nAnd perhaps the most beautiful quality of the painting is that it does not require the viewer to choose a single interpretation. Its ambiguity is precisely its content. This makes the work far more intriguing than a simple geometric abstraction: it is almost a machine for generating images within the viewer\u2019s imagination.<\/p>\n
The painting is presented in excellent condition and is ready to hang as is. The pictorial surface is stable, with its intentional textures and crisp, legible network of sgraffito; minor wear is limited to the extreme edges where the canvas meets the frame. The original frame shows some imperfections, and on the reverse, one joint in the rear stretcher has a small chip, invisible from the front and in no way affecting the presentation or structural integrity of the work. We like to think of these marks as four decades of quiet life around a work of art, leaving behind a gentle patina that distinguishes an authentic 1981 original from anything made recently.<\/p>\n
Early-period canvases by Ordo\u00f1ez appear on the market far less frequently than her later still lifes, and works from the pivotal year of her return from Barcelona in 1981 are genuinely scarce. For the collector of Mexican modernism, or for anyone who wants a wall to radiate warmth, this is the kind of painting around which a room is built.<\/p>\n
DETAILS
\n\u2022 Artist: Sylvia Ordo\u00f1ez (Mexican, b. 1956)
\n\u2022 Title: Untitled
\n\u2022 Date: 1981
\n\u2022 Medium: Mixed media (oil\/encaustic) on canvas adhered to Masonite board
\n\u2022 Signature: Signed and dated lower left, \u201cSylvia Ordo\u00f1ez 1981\u201d
\n\u2022 Dimensions: 92 \u00d7 75.5 cm (96.5 \u00d7 80 cm framed)
\n\u2022 Frame: Original wooden frame; ready to hang
\n\u2022 Provenance: Private collection<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sylvia Ordo\u00f1ez
\nOil and Mixed technique on canvas and masonite
\n36-1\/4 x 29-3\/4\"
\nSigned
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