Libros antiguos y palmatoria II, 2002

Gary Nader Fine Art, Miami Private Collection

The still lifes of Guillermo Muñoz Vera are both technically masterful and hauntingly deceptive, mimicking the realism of large-scale photographs. In his works, the simple arrangements of ordinary objects on a raised surface—vases, bottles, books, fruits and vegetables, mortars and pestles—are elevated to high art, reminiscent of Giorgio Morandi’s subject matter. In "Libros antiguos y palmatoria II," Muñoz Vera has depicted well-thumbed manuscripts on a stone-based wooden table alongside rolls of parchment, metal canisters, loose sheets of paper and an ivory candle in what appears to be an ornate copper and marble candlestick at right. The pages of the manuscripts can almost be touched: they are wrinkled, the covers are peeling along the edges, and the bindings are visibly worn. Unlike Morandi, however, Muñoz Vera uses stronger tonal contrasts between the painted objects and the muted background to elevate the ordinary into art. His approach follows in the footsteps of Spanish realist painters, dating to Diego Velázquez in the seventeenth century, whose interplay of light and shadow influenced the Chilean artist. Here, the assortment of items laid out on the table is contrasted by several areas of shadow along the left edge of the tabletop, in between the rolled-up sheets of parchment and beneath the book lying face-down, for instance. By juxtaposing an almost luminous surface, in the pale backdrop and the pages of the manuscripts, with small shadowy areas, Muñoz Vera ultimately presents a modern exploration of realism.