Limones #1 2020

Curator: Here we have Luis Álvarez Roure's "Limones #1," an oil painting created in 2020. What are your immediate impressions? Editor: Stark. Those lemons look so… stranded. Like little suns gone rogue on a glacial plain. There's almost more "not lemon" than lemon here. Curator: Roure’s work often plays with negative space. Notice the minimalist background, and how he uses this almost austere setting. In many ways, Roure invites viewers to consider not just the object, but the socio-cultural spaces those objects occupy. The choice of lemons too suggests a kind of colonial aesthetic, lemons being European. Editor: See, I go in a completely different direction. I feel this intense intimacy. That one lone lemon on the right—I keep wondering about its story. Was it chosen last? Rejected? There’s melancholy here, a quiet, domestic sadness that gets at something deeply human. Curator: That emotional interpretation aligns with contemporary art's embrace of subjectivity, particularly how realism gets reworked. Though the style seems traditional—even simple—it engages complex ideas around consumerism, the globalization of food, even class. Are these imported lemons? Are we meant to understand their accessibility or lack thereof? Editor: Oof, I wish the history didn’t yank me so hard. Because truly? What moves me is the light. Those dabs of bright yellow set against the cool gray and white… It feels hopeful. Each lemon a little burst of resilience against a very blank canvas. The texture also reminds me of aging paint on old houses, layers over layers like memories, like a past slowly being rewritten. Curator: That tension between resilience and erasure reflects current debates about contemporary realism, how paintings engage or critique the histories they depict. We're seeing this interest across various contemporary still life paintings in our collection. Editor: Art that demands your full attention on what is depicted, but also on the canvas where everything exists, a testament to how paint as material, a little color as expression, has enormous, undeniable appeal. And also that if life hands you lemons… find a great painter.