José Lerma Spain, b. 1971
Nathan, 2014
Acrylic and pigmented silicone on glass-less mirror
72 x 60 x 2 in
182.9 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm
182.9 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm
3973
Further images
This work was created for the exhibition Gloriosa Superba, which was titled after the flowering plant named after the Rothschild family, Rothschildiana Gloriosa Superba. The Gloriosa Superba is a climbing...
This work was created for the exhibition Gloriosa Superba, which was titled after the flowering plant named after the Rothschild family, Rothschildiana Gloriosa Superba. The Gloriosa Superba is a climbing plant, which uses its leaves at the base of each flower to attach to other flowers within the same plant in order to grow. The core of the exhibition consists of seven portraits depicting Mayer Amschel, Guttle Schnapper and their five sons whom left Frankurt Judengasse in the 18th century and established an international banking dynasty and the genesis of the Rothschild Empire. Though rooted within different countries and economies, the five branches of the Rothschild banking system remained connected in a web of joint support and success. Lerma approaches the portraits themselves in a conceptual process similar to this interconnection by painting each portrait on reflective glass-less mirror, with each member of the family initially representing a different color wheel, and building the paintings’ compositions and palettes based on each other’s reflections when the portraits are placed within the same environment. This process results in a spectrum of color within each work in what Lerma calls a display of chromatic incest, a poetic gesture on the collective rise of the family’s economic and political legacy.
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