Gallery

Paintings 2007-2008

About his recent work, Humberto Batista has said, "After 40 years of making figurative, Mexican-realist paintings, I was frustrated because I was not able to go beyond expressing certain ideas. It was as if I had reached a dead end with no future. I was struggling to leave the figure and go into the abstract. After five years of fighting the figure, I finally succeeded. The result is what you see in the paintings below. I feel that it was worth the wait, and I'm happy that I now can express much more in my work.

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Fantasia Abstracta #1 35" x 39"	Fantasia Abstracta #2 Diptych, 70" x 79" each part	Fantasia Abstracta #3 35" x 39"

Fantasia Abstracta #4 35" x 39"	Fantasia Abstracta #5 35" x 39"	Fantasia Abstracta #6 35" x 39"

Fantasia Abstracta #7 35" x 39"	Fantasia Abstracta #8 35" x 39"	Fantasia Abstracta #9 35" x 39"

Fantasia Abstracta #10 35" x 39"	Fantasia Abstracta #11 35" x 39"	Fantasia Abstracta #12 35" x 39"

Fantasia Abstracta #13 35" x 39"

Assemblages 2007-2008

Humberto Batista has said the following regarding his recent assemblages: "As an artist and an individual I absorb the energy from the society where I live....Many of my assemblages are isolated in boxes, lonely or happy in their sacred isolation. These assemblages declare their solitude, making angry, frightened, violent statements about religion, society, culture, personal icons and anti-icons with their faces, heads, arms, and bodies. My assemblages wear masks to protect their identity and personality as a metaphor representing the force of conformity so prevalent in my society. The mask also has a magic that protects its wearers and gives the wearer qualities beyond their normal capacities...."

Go here to see an extended statement by the artist about his assemblages, or here to see a 2006 critical essay on Batista's assemblages by cultural anthropologist, Richard Anderson.

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