Museum of Contemporary Art Hot Springs - MOCA - Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas

Juan Carillo Bio

With a rare delicacy of touch, Juan Carrillo imbues his canvasses with a coloristic richness that resonates in our memory long after the first viewing. Encompassing the complete spectrum of pure colour, he creates a luminosity that is near magical to behold. His world is a timeless space of rural and provincial solitude filled with warmth. Carrillo's work is a celebration of life that establishes a mystical connection between the earth and its ebb and flow of seasonal rhythms. Painted with distinct clarity, his vision of objects, people and nature molds into viewing that becomes a shared intimacy. Jean Cassou, Director of the National Modern Art Museum of Paris, wrote about Carrillo:"Familiar things and simple objects proclaim their simplicity, the warm friendship in everyday encounters... and the art that expresses this truth is characterized by this simple unaffected frankness unmarred by any artificiality."

Women are central to many of his compositions, archetypical figures possesing an air of mystery inhabiting lush countrysides in full bloom. Often they are depicted in profile suggested by the gentle curve of a cheek. Although he engages his women in ordinary activities that form the harmony and balance of life, they transcend the domesticity they portray. Each painting captures a moment that suggest a classic pose, an experience to be cherished. With economy of detail, Carrillo deftly excels in painting a mother nursing her child, immersing us in a captivating tenderness.

Andre Chabaud, Director of the Louvre Museum in Paris, wrote:"Carrillo's paintings are profuse in visual emotions, in an enchanted tonality comparable to those of Monet or a Cezanne." Juan Carrillo is widely collected and exhibited internationally, counting among his collectors the King of Spain, the Prince of Monaco, the Sony Corporation of Japan, the de Rothchildt family and Jacques Chirac, current president of France.

-Mark Leysen, Chief Curator