Tres elementos de una flor

Manzur’s works from his early period of formal experimentation in the 1960s are characterized by abstract composition, with geometric fields of color creating an illusion of spatial and textural depth. Influenced by the Russian sculptor and theorist Naum Gabo, with whom he worked in New York during the 1950s, Manzur’s Constructivist paintings reveal a concern with the representation of space and its immaterial quality. In this painting, the flower functions as both a poetic metaphor for the passing of time and a familiar form through which to investigate aspects of color and perception. A suggestive vertical form at the center of the composition evokes the torso of a body, while three circular shapes call to mind different stages of a flower’s growth: budding, blooming, and decaying. Layers of red, black, gray, and brown impasto and the integration of geometric shapes add spatial complexity. "Three elements of a flower" was first exhibited in 1961 at the Luis Angel Arango Library in Bogotá, Colombia and traveled later that year to the Pan American Union in Washington, DC. This text was created in collaboration with the University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology and written by Patricia Ortega-Miranda.