Night at the Cervantes Theater in Tangier 2001

Editor: This oil painting, "Night at the Cervantes Theater in Tangier" by Consuelo Hernández, completed in 2001, really grabs my attention. It's almost haunting, yet beautiful. What do you see in this piece, considering it’s not just a depiction but a construction of place? Curator: It's fascinating to consider the materials used and the process behind this romanticized depiction. Hernández chooses oil paint, a historically valued medium often associated with permanence and prestige, to represent a rapidly changing urban landscape. Notice how the thick application and texture almost build the architecture. This relates directly to the economy of art-making: oil paint’s availability, cost, and the artist's choices around it all tell a story. Editor: That's interesting. I hadn't thought about the actual paint as contributing to the scene’s sense of solidity. So you're saying the materiality echoes the social and economic elements in play? Curator: Exactly. Look at the "Orientalist" style being evoked, a construction built in the 19th and early 20th century based on exoticised or colonial perspectives, then reproduced through material practice. Is this painting simply a continuation, or is Hernández commenting on its complex legacy and implications? The *how* of her painting, the visible labor, makes these questions present. Editor: I guess I hadn’t considered the orientalist aspect deeply enough; the idea that the materials contribute so significantly to these dialogues is eye-opening. It shows how the tangible intersects with social significance. Curator: Absolutely! I’ll certainly be contemplating Hernández's material choices within this work for a while.