Art
Pink Commerce
Controversial Rodolfo Stanley takes a glance at juvenile sexual commerce in his most recent exhibit
Pink walls, short dresses, seductive, sad or bored gazes. Whisky, cigarettes or skin. Who buys, who sells?
The painter Rodolfo Stanley (1950) presents us an exhibit in which, sadly, youth is for rent. The artists approaches the eye and the paint brush to the topic of urban sexual commerce. Despite the fact that the business has many characters, the painter focuses only on the most visible ones: women that promise sex in exchange for money.
Stanley’s scenery is not a Moulin Rouge, nor is his view a playful one like that of the genious painter of brothels Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). Rather, the ambience captured by the Costa Rican artist is a well-known pink hotel of the capital city that serves as symbol for a country that, acccording to his own opinion, has turned sexual tourism into a millionaire industry.
The painter presents a collection of 13 paintings in acrylic, titled “Las niñas del rey” (“The king’s girls”, in allusion to the hotel’s name “El Rey” – “The King” in English). The show is exhibited in the 11-12 Gallery (Plaza Itskatzu, in Guachipelin, Escazu). The painter also offers us three paintings of one of his previous series “El Bailongo” (Ballroom Dancing).
This series as well as his most recent research form part of a larger series called “The Night”, which has kept Stanley busy for several years. In the broader series, the painter has undertaken the task of portraying several practices that, within the shadows, flee from the reproaches of “high moral standards”.
From up close. “These are young people that offer their bodies and youth as if they were commercial assets”, points out the artist in relation to the characters portrayed in his exhibit.
All the paintings are individual or group portraits. The artists states a difference between the women who are inside and those who are outside the hotel. Those who are outside are all young girls that sell their sexual services on the streets; this is probably the most painful judgement made by the artist.
“Once a friend from the Interamerican Development Bank (BID) told me that Costa Rica held the second place in the world after Manila for prostitution per square kilometer”, commented the artist.
Stanley confesses that his paintings contain a voyerist focus. He considers himself an “explorer of the human condition” and, in this occasion, wanted to approach the topic of sex as a commercial product.
Although Stanley paints based on real images, he tries to modify the faces of the characters in the paintings.
“The figuration is realistic and seeks to capture the gaze and the lips”, he explains. Furthermore, the author incorporates the figuration of a banana tree, which can be interpreted as a reference to the pejorative title of “Banana Republic” with which some developing countries are labelled.
“This series of offsprings evidences Costa Rica and Central America’s tropical condition”, explains the artist.
The environments in his works alternate: the darkness of the street or the pink walls of the hotel.
Moreover, the paintings contain the distinctive signs of Rodolfo Stanley’s recent style. The bottom part of the painting is taken by a mosaic of colors and the shapes blend into the background revealing only the lines of the drawing.
“These colored backgrounds have become part of my style: at first glance one knows that a painting is mine even if I don’t sign it”, points out the artist.
Art Career. The artist Rodolfo Stanley comes from a background in publicity and design. He began to become interested in painting at the age of 27 when he took some lessons with the reknowned painter Gonzalo Morales Suarez.
Many of Stanley´s early paintings were marked by a surrealist heritage; others clearly enclosed social criticism.
Before undertaking the series “The Night”, Stanley’s work focused on his extense series “Parks” which he worked in during most part of the nineties. During that process, the artist painted countryside scenes in parks.
The characters in that series moved away from realistic figuration. They appealed to characteristic Latin American motifs, such as the kind of light, the fruit and, above all, the female features. The composition was populated by nude women with wide hips.
On the contrary, the paintings of “The Night” came to install in Stanley’s work an almost documentary style.
The gallerist Mario Matarrita states: “Rodolfo goes from magic realism, in his parks, to crude realism in his most recent works; it is a testimonial vision of urban cities in their most sordid aspect”.
Stanley uses the collection “Las niñas del rey” to launch a veiled criticism on consumerist society, where bodies have become just another piece of merchandise. In a direct sense, the artist refers to prostitution, but also to people´s generalized tendency to want to have sexualy desirable bodies.
“The media promotes the “aesthetics of the flesh” and incites the middle class to consume more products in order to offer itself as an object”, comments Stanley.
Thus, though his figurations are crude and direct, Rodolfo Stanley’s exhibit can turn out to be metaphorical in its messages: a country that offers its beauty and youth to the best bidder.
Dario Chinchilla Ugalde
Newspaper La Nacion
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The six international museums of Ralli foundation count with 34 R. Stanley’s works
"THE RALLI MUSEUMS" The RALLI foundation, with museums in Israel, Spain, Chile, and Uruguay, has a collection of 34 paintings of the series "PARKS", the middle and large format pieces are on display in the foundation's different exhibition halls.
In 2002, SLOAN'S Auctioneers & Appraisers in Coral Gables, Florida, sold atauction the painting "LA CALLE" (The Street) of the series "La Noche" (The Night), executed in 1998, technique acrylic on canvas, size 51 in 45 in (130 x 115 cm), bought in $9,000.