The Bond of Nature
Fran De Anda’s Magicians
Fran De Anda's paintings connect viewers to the primal urge to understand the surrounding world. A menagerie of human-like creatures that he calls “Magicians” populate Cactus Gallery’s website. These figures recall mythological creatures such as angels, Cupid, the Minotaur, Pan, Ganesh, and even pre-historic paintings of humanoid creatures found in caves in France. In the Cave of Trois-Frères in Ariège, France, a wall drawing from 13,000 BC presents a standing creature, presumably—according to Jesuit archeologist Henri Breuil—performing a ritual as a shaman to ensure good hunting. De Anda's piece Magician of the Forest II resembles this ancient figure. The painting and the drawing both visualize our primal consciousness and explore the complicated relationship between homo sapiens and nature, life and death. Each work in De Anda’s exhibition exhibits the power and beauty found in the liminal space between our world and the realm of the imagination.
The Magician of the Forest II, n.d., oil and gold leaf on wood, 4 x 6 in. Image courtesy of the gallery.
De Anda’s figures immediately reminded me of creatures from The Garden of Earthly Delights. I spent about an hour gazing at Bosch's remarkable painting at the Prado last June, before the coronavirus epoch began. Thus, I wasn't surprised when De Anda acknowledged the profound influence of Hieronymus Bosch on his work. De Anda's imagination was also sparked by Mexican writer Juan Rulfo, who wrote the great novel Pedro Páramo, a book that presaged the Latin American magic realism movement and is filled with imagery of Mexican mestizo culture. Incidentally, Gabriel García Márquez and Jorge Luis Borges acclaimed the importance and influence of Pedro Páramo .
The Traveler Magician, n.d., oil and gold leaf on paperboard, 6 in. diameter. Image courtesy of the gallery.
Mexico City, where De Anda lives, is home to exemplary Baroque churches. Upon entering, one is seduced by gilded elements such as figures of the infant Jesus, the Madonna, crucifixes, altars, candle holders, and chalices. This is also the case with De Anda's work: aspects of the baroque are represented in his work through the use of gold leaf backgrounds haloing the creature with an alluring sheen. De Anda veers away from total capitulation to the Renaissance and baroque by clearing a path towards magical realism. The Traveler Magician piqued my curiosity: this ladybug-man flies through the air protected by a spiked shell with a rudder on the rear. He looks down, satisfied to think only of his journey in, as De Anda states, the "here and now." This painting depicts the potential for pain, the potential of escape, and the notion of an unsure fate—is escape always in the realm of possibility?
The Hermit Magician, n.d., oil and silver leaf on wood, 4 x 6 in. Image courtesy of the gallery.
The painting The Hermit Magician may symbolize the increasingly tenuous connection between nature and the modern, post-agricultural, post-industrial, digital-technological person. For hundreds of years, western culture has valued a type of intelligence that emphasizes seeking and manipulating things in the world, a point of view which has advanced science and technology. In this work by De Anda, we see the Hermit becoming one with a tree instead of manipulating it. Robert Wolff describes this phenomenon well:
“My perception opened further. I no longer saw water—what I felt with my whole being was a leaf-with-water-in-it, attached to a plant that grew in soil surrounded by uncounted other plants, all part of the same blanket of living things covering the soil, which was also part of a larger living skin around the earth. And nothing was separate; all was one, the same thing: waterleaf—plant—trees—soil—animals—earth—air—sunlight and little wisps of wind. The all-ness was everywhere, and I was part of it.”
De Anda says about The Hermit Magician: "This piece finds in the hermit's tradition the loneliness he needs for his evolution of thought, the transformation into wisdom that, like his arms, grows to reach its fruits." Can De Anda's thoughts reflect the philosophy of the indigenous hunter-gatherer way of life, where wisdom is learned from the teachings of the animals, the weather the waterways and the tribe all living in a natural environment?
De Anda says about this work:
“The Magicians: the choice of the title seemed perfect to me; the term “magician” can be attributed to both men and women. In this show, the body of paintings revolves around the elements or attributes that symbolize the mysteries of existence and nature, in the way of Greek deities. The Magicians are the alchemists who carry out the eternal cycle of creation-destruction while maintaining the natural balance. These Magicians influence all aspects of existence, from love and death to natural elements such as the sea and the land. They represent the strength and ability of the universe, which passes through them as vital energy. And in a magical and inspiring act of will, they perform the task of restoring the chaotic and mysterious but sublimely beautiful world.”
The Magician of the Flora, n.d., oil and silver leaf on wood, 4 x 6 in. Image courtesy of the gallery.
Until relatively recently in human history, mankind did not live in cities. Now nature has become compartmentalized: it has been transformed into vacation destinations. As modern city dwellers we are losing our connection to nature. The Magician of the Flora, a depiction of a woman's face as an evergreen tree, is adorned with baroque-style flourishes. In her plant/human existence she has become one with the tree. The message from the creatures De Anda has imagined for us might be this: bond with nature so you may become wise, bond with nature so the planet can survive. The balance of life is based on our primal connection to other living creatures.
