Fairy Flowers Lita Cabellut

LITA CABELLUT

FAIRY FLOWERS

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Fairy Flowers

by Gili Karev - Art Critic

It is a rare pleasure to witness and write about the progression of an artists’s work over a concentrated period of time. In the case of Lita Cabellut, this past year has seen the realisation of three distinctive yet interrelated series. Exploring, among other things, the infrastructure and complexity of beauty as manifested in the female form, Cabellut’s work has transitioned as subtly as that of a young girl maturing into womanhood - consistent, philosophically intricate, and ultimately surprising - perhaps even slightly unnerving. In ‘Fairy Flowers’ we find Cabellut intermixing more turbulent sculptural works together with classical portraiture, in a way that suggests an abstraction of apparently conspicuous figurative concepts. Working in tandem with the works on the wall, Cabellut’s ownership of space elaborates on the expansiveness of beauty in a given sphere: how it is born out of, interacts with, and thrives on its given surroundings.

My own reflection on Cabellut’s work takes the liberty of addressing it in stages, with each new body of work functioning separately and concurrently with the one preceding it. In ‘Fairy Flowers’, I see a continuation of her series entitled ‘Impulse’, which united elements of sublimity, pleasure and pain to examine our inherent attraction to imperfection. Bringing to question the dichotomy between beauty and the sublime; pleasure and violence, ‘Impulse’ entangled the viewer in a distorted revival of classical theories while reclaiming possession of female beauty - an accolade typically granted by society and its patriarchal constructs. In ‘Colour of Dew’, Cabellut combined the tantalising beauty of femininity with the intuitive effects of colour. Confronting our immediate emotional response to contrasting components, her figures appeared blanketed in brilliant hues of pink and turquoise. Yet shrouded with an expression of sadness and a weighted posture, the women seem heavy with the burden of their beauty.

A shift occurs in ‘Fairy Flowers’. The women have grown wiser; their thorns pricklier, their presence more formidable and self-assured. They emerge vividly from contrasting backgrounds, no longer shy but declaratively present, their portraits embellished by the frozen movement of three-dimensional forms. Beautiful still, but also durable and independent, suspended in a moment of blossoming and growth.

*COVER, Fairy Flower 03, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 200 x 180 cm - 78.7 x 70.9 in.

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FAIRY FLOWERS

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Fairy Flower 06, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 150 x 150 cm - 59 x 59 in.

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Color of Dew 03, 2015 Mixed media on canvas 215 x 145 cm - 84.6 x 57 in.

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Fairy Flower 01, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 215 x 145 cm - 84.6 x 57 in.

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Fairy Flower 09, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 215 x 145 cm - 84.6 x 57 in.

Color of Dew 20, 2015 Mixed media on canvas 80 x 80 cm - 31.5 x 31.5 in.

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Fairy Flower 07 Mixed media on canvas 215 x 145 cm - 84.6 x 57 in.

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Divine 01, 2015 Photography on Dibond 215 x 145 cm - 84.6 x 57 in.

Divine 02, 2015 Photography on Dibond 215 x 145 cm - 84.6 x 57 in.

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Color of Dew 10, 2015 Mixed media on canvas 215 x 145 cm - 84.6 x 57 in.

Color of Dew 23, 2015 Mixed media on canvas 80 x 80 cm - 31.5 x 31.5 in.

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Color of Dew 09, 2015 Mixed media on canvas 215 x 145 cm - 84.6 x 57 in.

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Passion, 2016 Photography on Dibond 215 x 145 cm - 84.6 x 57 in.

Delirium, 2016 Photography on Dibond 215 x 145 cm - 84.6 x 57 in.

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Fairy Flower 10,2016 Mixed media on canvas 250 x 200 cm - 98.4 x 78.7 in.

Fairy Flower 05, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 200 x 180 cm -78.7 x 70.9 in.

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Color of Dew 26, 2015 Mixed media on canvas 80 x 80 cm - 31.5 x 31.5 in.

Fairy Flower 02, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 215 x 145 cm - 84.6 x 57 in.

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Color of Dew 16, 2015 Mixed media on canvas 260 x 200 cm - 102.4 x 78.7 in.

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Fairy Flower 04, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 200 x 180 cm - 78.7 x 70.9 in.

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Bodas de Sangre, 2015 Flower installation H: 150 cm - 59 in.

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Tempus Triptych Mixed media on canvas 33 145 x 430 cm - 57.1 x 169.3 in.

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Color of Dew 12, 2015 Mixed media on canvas 150 x 150 cm - 59 x 59 in.

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Gentleness, 2016 Photography on Dibond 215 x 145 cm - 84.6 x 57 in.

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Lita Cabellut

Lita Cabellut was born into a Gipsy family in Barcelona in 1961. She lived on the streets until the age of 12 before being adopted by a prominent family. She was then introduced to the Spanish masters at the Prado Museum, where she was deeply influenced by the paintings of Velázquez, Goya and Frans Hals. A prolific contemporary portraitist, the young Cabellut was inspired by the ubiquitous fresco paintings in her hometown. She spent four years in classical training before holding her first exhibition at the Town Hall of Masnou, Barcelona at the age of seventeen. At nineteen, she left her native Spain to study at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, which is where she remains today to live and work. Over the years, Cabellut has developed a unique technique that yields an inimitable quality and texture to her work, painting large-scale portraits incorporating traditional fresco techniques with modern applications of oil paint. She also developed a unique technique for installations and ‘Hybride’ photography, combining her materials in a 3 dimensional experience.

Major museum exhibitions 2012 - 2013: Retrospective, Tricot Winterswijk, Winterswijk, The Netherlands 2014: Here To Stay, Kunststation Kleinsassen, Berlin, Germany 2014: Exhibition of 100 Masterpieces, Seoul Art Centre, Seoul, South Korea 2014: Black Tulip, State Visit Okura Hotel, Tokyo, Japan 2015: Black Tulip, the Golden Age, Mumbai & New Delhi, India 2015: Permanent collection Trilogy of Doubt 15, Museo Arte Contemporanea, Sicilia 2015: Permanent collection Trilogy of Truth, European Museum of Modern Art MEAM, Barcelona, Spain Exhibitions to come 2016: Chaplin, Royal Opera House, Muscat, Oman 2017: Solo exhibition, Museo de Arte Contemporano Gas Natural Fenosa, La Coruña, Spain 2017 - 2018: Retrospective, Vila Casas Foundation Volart, Barcelona, Spain

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LITA CABELLUT FAIRY FLOWERS Beirut 2016

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