ABOUT THE WORK

The late modernist Oscar Zalameda’s works are tender in observation and mood yet avoid false sentimentality. He combines figuration and abstraction in his dynamic and often calming works either through bold or softer colors and lines—charming collisions of hazes and patterns of broken colors—as his style evolved. His brush strokes, moreover, provide visual equivalents of natural objects and the feel of weather effects which make an impact on the spectator just as these had been executed with immediacy. These are noticeable in his depictions of sailboats, an often taken up subject matter by the artist, rendered with the blue skies and vibrant waters reflecting parts of the boats’ features. In Sailboats, Zalameda’s softer Cubist style shows, specifically in the sketched-like boats with distinct colored edges blending in with the background. The often bold, jostling brush strokes have given way to small, variegated touches that softly and subtly convey the shimmer of the colored reflections of the surface of the water. His rendering of the sailboats reveals his dedication to the mastery of color as well as atmosphere. It also has the lines and forms that characterize Zalameda’s early landscape works. This is a fine example of Zalameda’s developing interest in the elemental, also showing the elegant and sophisticated mural techniques he learned in 1955 in Mexico.