Close to you by Nuria Maria
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Close to you 2020

Nuria Maria

26 ⨯ 31 cm
Currently unavailable via Gallerease

Gallery Nono

  • About the artwork
    acrylic on wood
  • About the artist
    Nuria Maria is seen as an emerging artist, who originates from the Netherlands, like other celebrated artists such as Carmen Barton, Fault Lines, Trieneke Santing, Ineke Van Koningsbruggen, and Keetje Mans. Nuria Maria was born in 1990.

    Nuria Maria is a notable figure within the fields of Minimalism and Abstraction. Minimalism is an art movement born in New York city in the post World War II era, its essence emanating from a inherent desire to escape the pre-set conceptions about art, and make artwork flourish in its own reality rather than just mimic life. Known as one of the most influential art movements of the 1960s, minimalism sought to grow away from abstract expressionism, which was the dominant genre in the late 1950s. The fathers of Minimalism were deeply influenced by European abstract movements, and works by the Dutch De Stijl artists, Russian Constructivists, as well as members of the German Bauhaus, which had pioneered radical abstraction. Some of the most influential artists of Minimalism include Frank Stella, Dan Flavin and Donald Judd. Honesty and clarity are among some of the key concepts in Minimalism, which finds its core in an emptiness of emotional responses or metaphorical elements. Geometrical shapes and polished, clean lines are creating artworks that will grant the viewers with powerful visual responses, but its goal is not to inspire emotions, nor to reflect the artist's personal expression and feelings. Minimalist artists were tired of the gestural elements inherent in previous art movements, and were seeking to remove any elements that would suggest self-expressionism. As Frank Stella said, the essence of Minimalism is that "you see what you see".

    Born in the early 20th century, abstract art can be defined as a movement evading the classical definition of art, which succeeded in creating its own tradition through freedom and a new perception of reality. In abstract artworks, the objects are schematised, modified, and hold little to no reference to reality. Abstract art represents a fundamental moment in modernism, and its roots can be traced to Impressionism. With Abstraction, the artists are free to explore deep into their emotions, and create completely new and liberated representations of the world, which are inherent to their own perception of it. Wassily Kandinsky, who believed that colours and shapes could be used to represent the artist’s inner turmoil, is often considered as the father of abstract art.

    The Netherlands has been established as an artistic and cultural centre for centuries, for instance through the international influence of renowned artists such as Jan van Eyck in the fifteenth century. In the 1600s, the Dutch Golden Age saw the rise of such distinguished artists as Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeer, Van Dyck and Van Ruisdael. Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh is considered as one of the most significant forerunners of the post-Impressionist era and is still regarded as an extraordinary, unprecedented painter that has influenced the art sphere regardless of any era or movement.

    At first established as a magazine, De Stijl was a movement that pioneered abstract art in the Netherlands, led by Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesberg. De Stijl artists would espouse a visual language solely composed of geometrical shapes, and the movement also had a profound influence on modern architecture as well as design. Gerrit Rietveld was a prominent architect and designer who adopted the ideals and the essence of De Stijl in his work. Willem de Kooning was also a Dutch national, though he relocated to the United States in the earlier years of his life, and his work was largely influenced by the Abstract Expressionism movement prosperous in New York City in the late 1940s and 1950s.

    The boom in consumerism and advertising that took place in the 1980s influenced a trend in Japan that matured into the art form of manga, which was visually inspired by trends in advertising and graphic design. Takashi Murakami arose as a prominent figure in the art world, coining the term ‘Superflat’ to describe a theory inspired by the aesthetic characteristics of manga and the nature of post-war Japanese culture. Murakami went on to found the influential Kaikai Kiki group, which was inspired by his experiences living in New York City in the mid-1990s.

    Relational Aesthetics, a term coined by curator Nicholas Bourriaud to describe the act of making art based on human relations and their social context, became a central idea in the 1990s. Works by artists including Douglas Gordon, Gillian Wearing, Philippe Parenno and Liam Gillick were described as important artists who worked to this outline.

    German artists and ideas strongly influenced trends in conceptual photography during this period. German artists such as Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, and Wolfgang Tillmans gained major recognition, and inspired international artists such as the Canadian Jeff Wall, who created images with a cinematic expressiveness that were inspired by the themes represented in the German artists’ work. At the same time, Albert Oehlen and Martin Kippenberger gained influential status in the field of painting.

    The art world was influenced by a number of trends throughout the decade, the divisive, hyper-realistic sculptures of Maurizio Cattelan and the sensitive, conceptual work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres epitomised the atmosphere of the era.

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