The still life paintings of Maria Tomasula are mesmerizing. Each flower petal is meticulously painted, recalling the delicate floral borders of 15th century Flemish manuscripts as well as the detailed 17th century Dutch vanitas. In terms of subject as well as execution, her works clearly depart from the conventional Latino/a art of mostly figural style with political content or referencing mass culture.
Tomasula’s vanitas flower pieces are, however, more about suffering than death, as they are strained, stretched, and pierced. In fact, the objects, though they appear enticingly polished at first glance, are actually tortured. The artist claims her Catholic upbringing as the main source of her paintings and clearly remembers countless gory images of saints in martyrdom that she encountered in the Mexican Catholic Church in Chicago that she attended as a child. Her flowers are fine-art, metaphorical representation of the saints in martyrdom.
This paper explores the influence of Mexican Catholic images on the art of Tomasula. It relates popular religious art as well as official church images to her art. It also delves into some Mexican traditions that fully merged indigenous and Catholic practices, such as the ofrenda of the Day of the Dead that are relevant to the works of the artist. It evidences the syncretic nature of her works that are embedded in both European and Mexican traditions.
This study aims to present a case that eludes the typical categorization in both style and content, yet still belongs to the ethnic-bound art that invites a broader inclusive framework. This is an example of a more expansive case of Latino/a art as well as of contemporary American art as called for by Tomás Ybarra-Frausto.
About the presenterSoo Y. Kang
1989 M.A. University of California, Berkeley 1994 Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara 1995-present Professor of Art History, Chicago State University