UL DE RICO

 

PAINTER , STAGE & SETDESIGNER

AND TRANSLATOR OF EMOTIONS

 

 

The reproduction of many paintings, especially those of the portraits, are of mediocre quality due to old and bad photographs taken at the time. But the general level is acceptable even if the reduced dimensions of the images do not permit the details to be shown.

 

My work can be divided in three parts:

BEFORE the Academy (Nr. 1 to Nr. 1w)

DURING the Academy (Nr. 2a to Nr. 2w)

AFTER the Academy (Nr. 3 to ...)

 

The work, drawings and paintings, produced during the first six semesters I studied at the Art Academy of Munich can’t be integrated into the direct line of my artistic development.
It was influenced by abstract art, because my professor was an abstract painter.
After those three years devoted to the art of drawing and painting, I changed teacher in order to study stage and costume design. This change allowed me to turn to a figurative way of expressing myself, to which I have remained faithful up to the present.
I don’t regret my “Abstract Period”. The connection between the forms becomes more evident if we have learnt how to observe them with “abstract eyes”. This is very useful in any form of art.
It also means that, when we distance ourselves from the name, the meaning, the identity of the object, the pure form of this object abstracted from its sense will remain. And this will be the point of departure for a new abstract work.
That is exactly what a graphologist does. He turns the page upside down to avoid being influenced by the letters or by the sense of the manuscript. He studies only the pure, abstract form of the calligraphy.
In figurative art this separation is not perceptible. The sense, the form and the colours live in a harmonious oneness.
The short lifetime of abstract art, which was based on an intellectual idea, corresponded perfectly to the way of thinking of that time. New artistic movements can be interesting. How important they are for the evolution of art only time will tell.
But one thing will always be important: whatever we do, we must do it with conviction!
Art can do a lot of things. Works of art can decorate walls. They can delight people, make them happy or sad. They can even heal people, or depress them. Art can say more that words can.
But above all, art can open people’s eyes, so that they can discover again in nature and in their lives all the things that works of art can reveal.
So that life can be lived more intensively.