Art Explained: The Persistence of Color

J. Antonio FARFAN

Persistence of Color ( Aged Painting )

2017/ 2020

Acrylic, oil and gold leaf on linen - curtain is a second layer of linen

46 x 46 in. ( 116.8 x 116.8 cm)

The curtain has been a recurring theme for the past thirty years as both a decorative element and as a symbol of transition between stages of time, introducing the future or closing the past. The layers become a theatrical experience of discovery of still and dynamic symbols that form multiple meanings. In the Persistence of Color, the blue gray curtain folds up over a blind epoch and reveals a microcosm of the current state of technology. Tiny symbols of geometry, mathematics, science and text connect and blend the mechanical and organic worlds. Symbols go in and out of existence and reveal themselves moment by moment. In the present day we are once again in an era of great discovery, the internet has opened up areas of knowledge previously closed. This age mimics the Italian Renaissance of the mid fifteenth century where the discovery and introduction of ancient texts led by academic and independent scholars changed the entire course of history. The Renaissance like our current “Webnaissance” has allowed us to make credible and evidence based discoveries of ancient and unknown texts exactly mimicking the discoveries of the Italian Renaissance. Exponentially the world is changing, Roads link previously unknown territories and the world is once again blossoming with ideas.

Our entire society has evolved dramatically and the evolution of technology has invoked a powerful change for humanity. The once hidden world within scholarship, science, history and religion have cleared their murky existence and revealed thousands of distorted and guarded bits of information. Data has become a way of life, and with it and new mindset of inquiry and investigation that is making the world less monochrome.

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