RAÚL GONZO: COLOR MADNESS | CROCKER ART MUSEUM
Raúl Gonzo, Self Portrait. Courtesy of the artist.
Written by: Max Weiner
Mundane life splashed with pops of color makes Raúl Gonzo’s new series a brilliant experience for all.
It’s in human nature to be drawn to bright color. Vibrant splashes of orange and green will immediately catch one’s eye, satisfying our chemical wants and needs in the stale pantomime of life. When walking down the street, seeing a colorful pop in someone’s outfit will immediately grab our attention. We are attracted to art in a similar way. Black-and-white images most certainly have merit, but a cacophony of color can bring us closer to the piece — physically and metaphorically — , almost always adding to the wonder of the experience.
Raúl Gonzo, Synchronized Swimmer Drama. Crocker Art Museum, gift of the Artist, 2021.23.1.
Raúl Gonzo is no stranger to using a full palette in his work, and his new series Color Madness lives up to its name exactly how you’d expect it to. Each piece is bright, fun, humorous and light, and he turns our mundane world into a spectacle for all to see. Using color to examine the typical American life, Gonzo directs our gaze to the surface level imagery of the piece, creating an interesting argument: we are missing the bigger picture of our lives by only focusing on what’s in front of us.
Each of Gonzo’s pieces has a perfectly balanced pop of color in it, proving his mastery as an artist to the fullest extent. Each splash of pink and yellow is paired perfectly, especially in Synchronized Swimmer Drama (2015). Car Parked for Dinner, Part 1 (2020) is another example of how thoughtful the color in Gonzo’s compositions is, with the yellow of the car and chair perfectly balancing out the melancholic blue of the image’s setting. We’re drawn to so many different focal points throughout each piece due to Gonzo’s efforts to pack each image with curious details for us to obsess about.
Raúl Gonzo, Parked Car for Dinner, Part 1. Crocker Art Museum, gift of the Artist, 2021.23.3.
The carefully considered compositions of color in Gonzo’s work begs us to ask deeper questions about not just the artwork itself, but also our own lives. His means of distracting the spectator with vivid imagery begs us to look deeper and question what’s really going on, much as we do in our own lives. We’re constantly bombarded with loud capitalistic marketing ploys that grab us immediately and distract us from the truth — such as a company’s ethics or their behind-the-scenes practices. The same goes for celebrity culture, especially reality TV and fluff pieces that make us ignore the dark reality of our world. Perhaps these pieces are wake-up calls for all of us to be more aware of our surroundings and to be more cognizant of the truth. Lord knows how often it’s covered up.
Color Madness opened at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento on June 30 and has a scheduled closing date of October 20.
Raúl Gonzo, Green Cabinet. Courtesy of the artist.
