The Timken Museum of Art has unveiled plans for Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio, celebrated for her colossal wall drawings, to serve as the artist-in-residence for the summer of 2024. Ortiz-Rubio is set to compose a massive mural, In Blue Time, drawing inspiration from the Timken’s 1557 artwork, Parable of the Sower, by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Her artwork will extend across a vast wall in the Museum’s Dutch/Flemish Gallery and will be exhibited from the dawn of June until September 29. During her residency from June 5-26, visitors at the Timken can observe Ortiz-Rubio as she brings In Blue Time to fruition.
Complementing In Blue Time, Ortiz-Rubio is also crafting an ambitious piece for the Timken’s transient Exhibition Gallery. This component includes a vast drawing birthed from a partnership with the musician Stefan Cwik, delving into the theme of temporality and thus resonating with the overarching motif of In Blue Time. Furthermore, Ortiz-Rubio will delve into diverse landscapes, utilizing atmospheric perspective to depict depth during her museum tenure. Her petite preliminary mixed media studies on parchment will reveal her artistic journey.
Native to Mexico, Ortiz-Rubio presents her forthcoming summer residency as an exploration of memory. The conceptual underpinnings of In Blue Time involve sifting through neurological pathways of recollection and oblivion, while also embracing the poetic and philosophical dimensions of memory. Among her many sources is Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost, which paints memory as “the blue of distance,” hearkening to the blues of atmospheric perspective emblematic of traditional painting.
Ortiz-Rubio professed, “The Parable of the Sower by Brueghel has long captivated me – especially its mastery of depth and the exquisite use of color and texture converging at the horizon. Such elements sparked the conceptual framework for my residency. Alongside the major piece paralleled with Brueghel’s work, I am formulating additional smaller-scale pieces in dialogue with other collection items.”
Murals have profoundly influenced Ortiz-Rubio since her upbringing amidst them in Mexico City. Albeit a consistent element in her visual and cultural palette, Ortiz-Rubio didn’t embark on her initial mural work until 2018 at the Bread & Salt Gallery in San Diego. Ortiz-Rubio’s creations are also displayed at notable venues such as Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT), the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, Quint Gallery all in San Diego, and the Orchid Building in San Diego’s Normal Heights area. Today, her mural initiated by the California Health Department at Bread & Salt Gallery remains in place.
Ortiz-Rubio elucidated, “At the Timken, I intend to expound on the atmospheric layers manifest in the Parable of the Sower’s horizon line, as a symbol for reminiscence. Like a landscape viewed through the veil of the atmosphere, dim and undefined, this serves as a visual metaphor for the phenomenon of memory – the more distant the memory, the hazier it becomes, shrouded in layers of temporal shift, interpretation, and forgetfulness.”
Summer Display: In Blue Time
Artist-in-Residence: Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio
Drawn from Pieter Brueghel’s Parable of the Sower, 1557 – Integral to the Timken’s Enduring Collection
Residency Period: June 5 – 28, 2024 – Presentation Dates: July 17-September 29, 2024
Timken Museum of Art – Balboa Park
1500 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101
619.239.5548 – www.timkenmuseum.org
Image Source: TatianaOrtiz-Rubio.com
