Lucas Arruda: Landscapes and/or Abstractions

Lucas Arruda, Untitled, 2011. Oil on linen, 50 x 50 cm, Everton Ballardin and Mendes Wood, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

I came across Lucas Arruda’s paintings while walking around Chelsea last summer. Arruda had a great show at Galeria I-20 called Deserto – Modelo, which consisted of 25 small-scale paintings. I decided to write about Arruda’s work because his paintings got stuck on me—and I find it hard for paintings to do that these days.

What has kept me thinking about Arruda’s paintings for over a year is not only the fact that I thought they are beautiful, but that I cannot pin-point what kind of paintings they are. When looking at them, I ask myself if I am looking at landscapes or if I am, in fact, looking at abstractions. I noticed that at times I am more inclined to think one way than the other depending on the painting and on the moment in which I am looking at them. Although there is what seems to be a horizon line in every painting, the paintings are not descriptive, and therefore, I am left with Arruda’s formal elements as my only source of information. Sometimes I think I see dry brushstrokes that wipe away a prior wet surface, a thick horizontal line and the exposed linen. At other times, I see clouds, horizon and dirty ground.

Arruda leaves me in a beautiful space between Mark Rothko’s abstractions and Van Gogh’s landscapes without directions for an exact answer. 

More images: http://www.lucasarruda.net/
http://i-20.com/lucas-arruda/select-works/
http://mendeswood.com/lucas-arruda/#imagens