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About this Item

Title

  • Cliff.

Other Title

  • Risco

Summary

  • José Jorge Oramas (1911-35) was an artist of Gran Canaria, one of the Canary Islands of Spain. Oramas died young from tuberculosis, and only 70 of his paintings survive. Most are depictions of Canary landscapes and are full of light conveyed through vivid color and intense clarity. Risco (Cliff) shown here is a typical example. The orange, white, and blues impart dynamism to this simple horizontal composition. The sharply perpendicular palm trunks connecting the land and sky add to the sense of space and perspective. Gran Canaria's vegetation of cactus and palm trees, the angled contours of local buildings, sea, and sky, and the island people are recurring motifs in Oramas's paintings. He also depicted the privileged areas of Las Palmas, such as Tirajana, Tafira, and Marzagan, and, near the end of his life, the San Nicolás and San Roque cliffs visible from his hospital room. Oramas was one of a generation of Canarian artists of the Luján Pérez school that included Rafael Clarés, Juan Márquez, Santiago Santana, Felo Monzón, and Juan Ismael. Their painting was informed by indigenismo (nativism, meaning a concentration on pre-Hispanic forms) and the magical realism described by German art critic Franz Roth. Spanish art theoretician Eduardo Westerdahl, editor of Gaceta de arte (Art gazette), was another influence on this group of artists in the early to mid-1930s. This painting is in the collections of the Atlantic Center of Modern Arts, in Gran Canaria.

Names

  • Jorge Oramas, José, 1911-1935 Artist.

Created / Published

  • [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [1932 to 1935]

Headings

  • -  Spain--Canary Islands
  • -  1932 to 1935
  • -  Cities and towns
  • -  Indigenism (Art movement)
  • -  Magic realism (Art)
  • -  Palms

Notes

  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  Original resource extent: 1 painting : oil on canvas ; 41 x 34 centimeters.
  • -  Original resource at: Cabildo of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands.
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021670660

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Jorge Oramas, José, Artist. Cliff. Canary Islands Spain, 1932. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1935] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670660/.

APA citation style:

Jorge Oramas, J. (1932) Cliff. Canary Islands Spain, 1932. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1935] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670660/.

MLA citation style:

Jorge Oramas, José, Artist. Cliff. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1935] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021670660/>.