Layers of Meaning

Fabric as an illusion... Roberto Gil de Montes

Roberto Gil de Montes is a painter, sculptor and a photographer. Often his work deals with the illusion of textiles. In particular, he uses the painted illusion of lace curtains to make a statement about artifice in life. A 1996 review in Arts Scene California describes Gil de Montes work: "A series of male portraits are simultaneously a celebration of the male figure--an homage to the male--which in Gil de Montes' work is as much an acknowledgement of a time-honored theme in the history of painting as it is a personal statement. They are as well a reflection on the process of growth, maturation and transition, mainly through fantastic interplays between a decorative and figurative language, specifically through the psychological and illusionistic device of the screen and the veil.

In two of these, Screen and Boy Behind Screen, Gil de Montes utilizes a characteristic variation of a thick and thin painting surface to play with the image of the personage. In the first of these, a matinee-idol-like figure looks at us through a veil, a decorative surface that obscures and tantalizingly reveals him to the viewer. In the second, Boy Behind Screen, the same approach reveals a younger man and, as with the veil, serves as a screen eliciting references to bridal veils, curtains, Chinese screens, and shutters--all allusions to a coquetry that demands our attention while hiding and shielding the object of our desire. And yet the screen creates an intentional barrier distancing the viewer even as it attracts him or her to the painted image. It is also a painterly reference to Gil de Montes' constant fascination with the cinema."

Gil De Montes painting, Screen was featured in a 1996 Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibition entitles Arte Latino. The catalog describes the work: "In Screen a man stands in front of a green wall gazing out at the viewer, his features and expression veiled by a floral lace curtain. Originally from Mexico, Gil de Montes lived with his family in various U.S. cities before moving to East Los Angeles. Conflicted about his own cultural identity, he went back to Mexico. When he returned two years later, he began addressing identity and place in universal rather than personal terms and here invites questions about the veils we use to shield ourselves from the world."

Fabric as an illusion....