Quelques Mots à Propos de l’Artiste
Cristina Rodriguez est née à Bogota, en Colombie, en 1964. Elle a fréquenté l´Université de los Andes, où elle a obtenu son premier diplôme d’art en 1987. Elle a ensuite choisi de continuer sa formation en Grande-Bretagne, suivant les cours de The Slade School of Fine Arts de Londres (où se formèrent Dora Carrington, Eileen Gray, Ben Nicholson) où elle obtient un Master of Fine Arts en 1991, avant de choisir de se baser à Londres durant plus de deux décennies.
Évoluant dans un contexte fortement marqué par la scène artistique européenne (Braque, Matisse, Klee, Chagall), elle ne renonce pas pour autant à la scène primitive de son inspiration: ce fleuve d’Amazonie légendaire, ses fables et ses riches territoires, creuset d’imaginaire haut en couleurs et fabuleux que représente sa Colombie natale. De plus, toujours attirée vers des terres à découvrir, à méditer et à peindre, elle est par essence une voyageuse infatigable – celle qui ressent spontanément les vives ressources et l’enchantement de pays nouveaux. L’élan pour le voyage, elle le dit souvent, est lié à son être profond et à son art. Outre la Colombie et les mythologies liées à sa vaste nature, ses lacs, ses montagnes, Cristina Rodriguez a puisé à des terres comme la Finlande, la Russie, la Turquie, l’Egypte, l’Algérie, la Namibie, l’Afrique du Sud, mais aussi la Grèce, l’Equateur, la Bolivie, le Pérou, sans oublier l’Autriche ou la Bulgarie – cet itinéraire porté vers la découverte lui a permis de travailler en Colombie, au Zimbabwe, aux Etats-Unis, en Angleterre, en Suisse et à présent au Portugal.
Sensible à la musique narrative, Cristina Rodriguez a réinterprété les fameux «Tableaux d’une exposition» de Mussorsky en 1987 avec un langage formel réaliste et sublime absolument magique. En 1997, c’est le tour du «Carnaval des Animaux» de Saint-Saëns, qui propose à travers son interprétation une vaste gamme de «légendes prises dans le réel» et tout un monde léger, coloré, vif, intense, qui précise le rôle de l’artiste comme narratrice d’une réalité vécue et enchantée. Ce qui est vrai: il y a chez Cristina Rodriguez une musicienne des couleurs, une intense observatrice qui recrée la magie du monde en péril, et une diseuse de fables qui nous transporte dans des terres de rêve. Elle est un «être-peintre total», ses multiples expositions au fil des ans le prouvent, c’est une magicienne qui crée au cœur du monde. Elle sait produire un syncrétisme original, sensible à des fables lointaines et sensible à Matisse, Braque, très profondément, et en même temps, un peintre narratif («j’aime raconter des histoires» dit-elle) capable de produire des atmosphères rêvées, étranges, enchantées, appuyées sur le réel, où une mystérieuse mélancolie le dispute à la représentation de lieux vrais. Elle a exposé de nombreuses fois, quasiment chaque année, dans des galeries ou des salons internationaux, à Londres, en Colombie, Italie, Etats-Unis, Canada, Afrique, France, Australie, au fil des trente dernières années, et de nombreuses institutions de par le monde possèdent ses œuvres, dans un catalogue qui, à ce jour en compte entre cinq cents et six cents – de nombreuses reproductions sont visibles sur le site cristina-rodriguez.com
"Promenades Enchantées à Genève" est le titre de sa neuvième exposition en solo. Cette exposition comprends 10 tableaux inspirés pas son séjour de deux ans à Genève.
Eric Levergeois
Philosophe
2015
A Few Words About the Artist
Translated by Dr. Ariane Galy (2024)
Translated by Dr. Ariane Galy (2024)
Cristina Rodriguez was born in Bogota, Colombia, in 1964. She attended the University of Los Andes, where she obtained her first diploma in art in 1987. She then chose to continue her training in the UK at The Slade School of Fine Arts in London (whose alumni include Dora Carrington, Eileen Gray and Ben Nicholson). She graduated with a Masters in Fine Arts in 1991 and settled in London for the next two decades. While her work continued to evolve against the influential backdrop of the European arts scene (Braque, Matisse, Klee, Chagall), she nevertheless stayed true the primary source of her inspiration: the legendary River Amazon, its fables and its rich territories, a crucible of imagination rich with the colour and fantasy of her native Colombia.
Having always been attracted to lands to discover, meditate and paint Cristina Rodriguez is by nature an indefatigable traveller – and one who instinctively recognises the rich resources and magic of new places. As she often says herself, her love of travel is deeply connected to her inner being and her art. Aside from Colombia’s mythology, borne of the country’s expansive natural world, its lakes and mountains, Cristina Rodriguez has explored many places, such as Finland, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Namibia, South Africa, as well as Greece, the Equatorial region, Bolivia, Peru, not forgetting others such as Austria or Bulgaria. This itinerary, designed with discovery in mind, has also allowed her to work in Colombia, Zimbabwe, the USA, England, Switzerland and currently in Portugal.
Sensitive to narrative music, Cristina reinterpreted Mussagorsky’s famous ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ in 1987, in a loyal yet sublimely magical language. In 1997 she turned her attention to the ‘Carnival of the Animals’ by Saint-Saëns which, in this new interpretation, offered a large range of depictions of legend and a world of light and colour, vivid and intense, which cemented the artist’s role as the narrator of a lived and enchanted reality.
Indeed, Cristina Rodriguez is a musician of colour, an intense observer who recreates the magic of a world in peril, a storyteller who transports us to the lands of our dreams. As her many exhibitions over the years have shown, she inhabits her work and is a magician who draws inspiration from the very heart of the Earth. She is able to produce an original syncretism, sensitive to distant fables and deeply sensitive to Matisse and Braque. At the same time, she is a narrative painter (‘I like storytelling’, she says) capable of producing strange, dreamlike and enchanted environments that although rooted in reality, possess a mysterious melancholy that colours that reality differently.
She has, over more than thirty years, exhibited many times, almost annually, in international galleries in London, Colombia, Italy, the USA, Canada, Africa, France and Australia. A number of institutions around the world house works from her vast back catalogue of between 500 and 600 paintings, many of which can be seen on her website cristina-rodriguez.com. Her current, ninth solo exhibition, ‘Promenades Enchantees a Geneve’ is a series of 10 paintings inspired by the two years that she spent living in Geneva.
Having always been attracted to lands to discover, meditate and paint Cristina Rodriguez is by nature an indefatigable traveller – and one who instinctively recognises the rich resources and magic of new places. As she often says herself, her love of travel is deeply connected to her inner being and her art. Aside from Colombia’s mythology, borne of the country’s expansive natural world, its lakes and mountains, Cristina Rodriguez has explored many places, such as Finland, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Namibia, South Africa, as well as Greece, the Equatorial region, Bolivia, Peru, not forgetting others such as Austria or Bulgaria. This itinerary, designed with discovery in mind, has also allowed her to work in Colombia, Zimbabwe, the USA, England, Switzerland and currently in Portugal.
Sensitive to narrative music, Cristina reinterpreted Mussagorsky’s famous ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ in 1987, in a loyal yet sublimely magical language. In 1997 she turned her attention to the ‘Carnival of the Animals’ by Saint-Saëns which, in this new interpretation, offered a large range of depictions of legend and a world of light and colour, vivid and intense, which cemented the artist’s role as the narrator of a lived and enchanted reality.
Indeed, Cristina Rodriguez is a musician of colour, an intense observer who recreates the magic of a world in peril, a storyteller who transports us to the lands of our dreams. As her many exhibitions over the years have shown, she inhabits her work and is a magician who draws inspiration from the very heart of the Earth. She is able to produce an original syncretism, sensitive to distant fables and deeply sensitive to Matisse and Braque. At the same time, she is a narrative painter (‘I like storytelling’, she says) capable of producing strange, dreamlike and enchanted environments that although rooted in reality, possess a mysterious melancholy that colours that reality differently.
She has, over more than thirty years, exhibited many times, almost annually, in international galleries in London, Colombia, Italy, the USA, Canada, Africa, France and Australia. A number of institutions around the world house works from her vast back catalogue of between 500 and 600 paintings, many of which can be seen on her website cristina-rodriguez.com. Her current, ninth solo exhibition, ‘Promenades Enchantees a Geneve’ is a series of 10 paintings inspired by the two years that she spent living in Geneva.
Eric Levergeois
Philosopher
2015
