Acrylique bleu émeraude
(Emerald blue acrylic)
Gloria Li Mir
80 cm x 80 cm
1986
Acrylic on strengthened and worked canvas
The square-shaped painting “Acrylique bleu émeraude” (Emerald blue acrylic) from 1986 by Gloria Li Mir, is relief with a quadratic elevation in the centre and several round to oval bulges in the lower part of the picture. Blue and green parallels accentuate the horizontal line, but the rest of the surface is white. On first sight, the painting seems to be abstract. Nevertheless, it was inspired by a landscape.
Motivated by another artist to renew landscape painting, without repeating it realistically, Gloria introduced elements that symbolise essentials without showing a photographic illustration. Like in other works before, she used her technique to strengthen parts of the canvas from behind so that a relief appears. These are her beloved pebbles, which inspired her since she came first to the south of France. Moreover there is a reference to her often introduced movable elements in the central quadratic elevation, but this time it is fixed, so that it is another raising, to change the angle of the incoming light.
To identify the landscape behind Gloria’s “Emerald blue acrylic”, it is necessary to decipher the symbols. The pebbles are to be found at the beach of Nice at the Côte d’Azur. Depending on the weather, the Mediterranean Sea glows in a colour spectrum from light blue to dark green. That is why the artist painted the horizontal line in these colours. Remarkable is the colour gradient: like in nature, the lowest line is in light blue to refer to the transparency of shallow water. Progressively to the top, the colour range gets darker, with some lighter zones, which are standing for less deep areas in the sea. Consequently, there is dark wide line, representing the maritime depth. A final light blue line shows the passage from the sea to the sky at the horizon, where the water evaporates and creates a hazy veil. On the canvas, the blue and green lines are refracted due to the quadratic elevation. This shows the abstracted curve of the bay of Nice and simultaneously the water movement. It is an interaction between personal symbolism and its materialisation on the canvas.
The remaining white background stands for the sunlight that plays its games on the surrounding landscape and is especially prominent in the transparent air above the sea. At the same time, the white surface permits the incident light to be reflected directly on the painting and include the atmosphere of the exhibition space.
Gloria Li Mir
Born in Lima, Peru, in 1943, Gloria studied Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, USA, and drawing (studio work) at the University of Stanford in California, USA. Until 1975 she lived and worked in Guatemala-City, and then in the region of Nice, France. From 1993 to 1998 she travelled and worked in the United States and in Guatemala. 1998 Gloria returned to Nice, and since 1999 has lived and worked in Vallauris, France.
At the start of her career Gloria’s paintings were in traditional figurative style. But soon after her studies she changed to more experimental works. When observing the play of light in her bathroom in 1969, Gloria started to paint monochrome white on strengthened canvas, with movable elements, in order to catch the continual changing qualities of the light. For the same purpose she experimented in the mid-seventies with treating the canvas as traditional goldsmiths had done with gold and silver in Latin-America for many centuries, composing forms from the canvas to create a relief.
Gloria continued to widen her research further with different forms and tended to leave the traditional dimensions of pictures more and more. She experimented by constructing a series of puppets that were sometimes attached to the canvas, and sometimes independent of it. These figures and their equipment are also made from wood, with strengthened canvas, painted in white acrylic.
When Gloria first arrived in the south of France she was fascinated by the landscape and the pebbles on the beach, so she started a comprehensive series of paintings and pebbles in relief. At the same time she continued to create screens for reflecting the different sorts of light, mainly concentrating on white paintings with movable elements.
In the mid-eighties Gloria reintroduced sometimes colour to her paintings, but still worked with her beloved pebbles. At the end of the 1980s she initiated group-exhibitions and exhibitions/performances. After leaving France for a five year working and exhibition journey through the US and Guatemala in 1993, she continued with performances and the organization of artistic events in different places.
After her return to France in 1995 Gloria used more and more pre-existing objects in her work. Amongst others, she created a series about a small mouse. In it she sometimes uses toy mice, real mousetraps or, she just returns to her “old” technique of pushing the canvas.
During all of her active time as an artist her work has encompassed different artistic media and disciplines including paper works, small boxes, ceramics, books and, above all two books written for children. Unfortunately Gloria lost her eyesight some years ago, so she was forced to stop most of her artistic activities. Nevertheless she is experimenting with taking photos and focus on cooperation with other artists.
In general Gloria’s artistic discourse has always centred on research concerning reflection; first it was the gleam of sunlight, then the glance backwards to childhood and finally her view on society. Not only is she interested in the world surrounding us, but also invites us to question on what is proposed.
In April 2017 we presented this second painting by Gloria Li Mir as artwork of the month. Our first artwork of the month in February 2015 was “Vers le ciel” (To the sky).
Contact: info [at] artificialis.eu