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Dynamic Still Life

See this intriguing painting in our traveling exhibition Arte Latino: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The show, featuring more than sixty works by Hispanic artists, opened yesterday at the Palm Springs Desert Museum in Palm Springs, California, and runs through May 26, 2002.

In this image, Carlos Almaraz has transformed a traditional still life of bottles, cups, and figurines into a swirling image that intermingles the interior world of the artist's studio with a chaotic panorama of contemporary Los Angeles life. At the lower right the artist sips coffee while calmly watching the scene play out as on a huge movie screen.

Source: Virginia Mecklenburg. Arte Latino: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured: Carlos Almaraz, 1941 Mexico–1989 USA, Homage to Still Life, 1986, oil, 72 x 108 1/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.