Graceful female figures lounge in fashionable poses. Paper costumes that seem borrowed from Oskar Schlemmer’s triadic ballet make the ballerinas look like marionettes. This artwork presents a striking black-and-white image of a seated figure, enveloped in abstract overlays of dynamic brushstrokes and geometric patterns. The figure, poised in a classical, almost balletic costume, contrasts sharply with the modern, chaotic energy of the surrounding lines. The textured brushstrokes add depth and movement, evoking a sense of tension between tradition and contemporary expression. The monochromatic palette emphasizes form and shadow, while the strategic placement of angular elements gives the piece a fragmented, yet harmonious appearance. This juxtaposition creates a layered narrative, exploring themes of identity and transformation. The composition's compelling blend of photography and abstract art techniques highlights the fluid boundaries between reality and abstraction, making it an engaging visual experience.
This of one of a kind intervened artworks produced in 2009 and 2010 marks Isaza's artistic shift from traditional fashion photography into fine art. It was at this time that Isaza began to explore beyond the camera lens through the process of applying physical interventions onto his printed images, using paint, crayon, tape, graphite and other such unconventional materials.
Seated Ballet, 2010
Seated Ballet, 2010
Archival pigment print Mix, aluminum, archival Tape, acrylic, and Photographic paper intervened by the artist
Dimensions: 65 H x 48 W in.
Unique
Signed, titled, dated and annotated by the artist on verso.
Mounted on aluminum.
Efren Isaza, one of Colombia’s most influential fashion photographers, initially studied fashion design. He united his interest in fashion with one of his earliest passions: photography. Graceful female figures lounge in fashionable poses. Paper costumes that seem borrowed from Oskar Schlemmer’s triadic ballet make the ballerinas look like marionettes.
Their dislocation recalls the puppets Hans Bellmer featured in his surreal photographic experiments. Frida Kahlo’s face with her dark, furrowed eyebrows, peers at the viewer out of different scenes; her hair is knotted artfully on her head.The allusions evoked in the imaginative creations of Colombian Fashion photographer Isaza are diverse: he cites and alienates an arsenal of styles before melding them into new compositions OF ONE OF A KIND LIMITED EDITION ARTWORK. It might be a certain scene, a poem, a petal of a flower, or the idea of a person that inspires a new work. His passion for breaking the boundaries of traditional fashion photography is palpable in each of Isaza’s unique works. He is less concerned with fashion than the image, the play of contrasts and the magic and the emotions sometimes saturnine,sometimes buoyant, sometimes surreal, and yet always beguiling that the image transports.
