Project 15
DEAD OF TURTLE
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS With this work the artist concludes the PROJECT 15 series, for its presentation in an exhibition entitled FENIX in September 2021. Behind this canvas lies the artist's promise to her daughter to paint the girl's little tortoise, which had died suddenly. To do so, Uta builds an upside-down world, as inexplicable as the death of the small pet. A tortoise in green tones, swimming and facing the viewer, dominates the centre of the work. Turning to the left, as if about to fly, is the second tortoise, in strong tones, not facing the viewer. The third, still very small, portrays the lost tortoise heading upwards towards a blue Mediterranean sky. To emphasise this surreal world, both true and deceptive, the painter depicts a bird, a kingfisher under water, catching a fish which in turn faces the image of its own death. The bezel of a watch, a hinted metronome, little boats… symbols of the inevitable passing of time, the piercing noise of the fleeting present, which becomes our past the very instant we touch it.
CHESSBOARD CAPE
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS This large-format work is the only bullfighting piece in Project 15. Is it the rigidity of a chessboard shaping the working cape, or rather the cape in motion that knows how to bend a chessboard? Is the matador disintegrating, or completing himself as he performs this artistic pass? The colour of this bullfighter's suit of lights – champagne, cream, lemon, old gold, straw, ochre, canary, hazel, wafer and the classic cane-and-gold – is a challenge in itself. The masterful movement leaves no doubt as to where the invisible bull stands. Uta's decision to paint the bullfighter's feet, perfectly aligned, on a square of grass floating above a fragile, semi-transparent staircase interprets a state of utmost concentration: the bullfighter's essential disconnection from everything that does not concern his dance with death.
VERSATILE DOLLS
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS Five dolls belonging to the artist's daughter, on a background of black and white squares in a folded alignment. Clearly, the painter wants to encourage us to forget the rules of a conventional approach. Not only the very fact of a multiple, extravagant portrait of toys, but also the possibility of reading this work as both a vertical and a horizontal painting at the same time, is a clear manifesto of Uta's intention to abandon the rules of how one should paint and how one should look at a work.
TASTY
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS The largest-format work in the series and a key piece for its high degree of complexity, surrealism and impact. With TASTY, Uta aims to open a dialogue, a discussion, about the importance of our trust, or lack of it, in what we eat. A giant hamburger floats on a calm, deep sea. A syringe loaded with Bitcoins and Satoshis can inject or extract the benefits of an icon of modern food. A diagram explaining the difference between a bit and a quantum bit is hidden beneath the grey shell of an unknown planet. The yolk of an egg that gives this fast food its juiciness begins to drain away, dripping into a giant shell, which can be read as a nod to Botticelli's masterpiece “The Birth of Venus”. The egg as a symbol of origin, of being, the perfect microcosm, the universal symbol of the mystery of the creation of the world, forms the epicentre of this canvas. Its yolk dissolves and turns into sand, the symbol of fleeting time that cannot be kept in the drawer of a black-and-white column. The sand gathers inside a fragile hourglass. Understanding, appreciating and making the most of the present should be the target of our approach to life. The mystery of a metamorphosis that requires a temporary death in order to be reborn with unsurpassable beauty. A hinted skull, underwater stairs and precipices, the doom that threatens our eternal struggle to find the meaning of our life. A work of maximum visual impact and depth of meaning.
2021 - RACES M
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS This equestrian subject, horse racing, one of the most frequent in Uta's repertoire, is recreated here as a reinterpretation of one of her own works painted 14 years earlier. Wishing to renew her own vision of a moment, the painter creates a race full of movement and great depth. She takes great care to give prominence to this third dimension, which requires an exquisite command of geometry and forms a striking symbiosis with the degree of abstraction that characterises her equestrian works.
NINE DOGS
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 9 DOGS is a commissioned work. Nevertheless, it is a very interesting part of the Project 15 series for several reasons. The subject itself required a very unusual concept in order to meet the client's wishes on the one hand without abandoning the painter's style on the other. The colour palette is one of the boldest of the whole series and underlines Uta's intention to create a work that combines enormous visual impact with the demands of nine canine portraits.
| work available | 2020 - WOOD AND TIDE LANDSCAPE IV - 110 X 140
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS
This work was inspired by a photograph the artist took at one of the ponds of the Sanlúcar salt flats.
The challenge the artist set herself was to capture a subject she had never worked on before, with a very limited colour palette and a perspective that demands a high degree of abstraction.
With the mastery she has achieved, the painter creates a work that is completely atypical and yet completely true to her style.
URBAN IMPRESSION LANDSCAPE III
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS The interpretation of a landscape dominated by an empty open space. A yellow excavator stands on the horizontal division of the canvas. As if to counterbalance this machine, the outlines of a somewhat abandoned-looking house open up, embedded in the dominant lines of a work that conveys great depth thanks to a strong perspective.
THE OLD ESTATE LANDSCAPE I
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS The second landscape in the series seems to act as a counterweight. Although the two canvases share a very similar colour palette, Uta's intention is clear: the search for a fully Mediterranean landscape, warm and equally solitary. The artist found the inspiration for this second landscape very close to her home and studio.
NORDIC LANDSCAPE I
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS This landscape is the first of a cycle of four within this series. As its title suggests, the artist interprets a landscape inspired by the landscapes of her childhood in Germany's Black Forest. On a markedly horizontal canvas, in bold, surreal colours, realistic forms reduced to their essence.
YOUNG LADIES
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS With this work Uta Geub paints a portrait of her daughter's paternal grandmother. It is based on a somewhat blurred black-and-white photograph from the early twentieth century showing the grandmother in the foreground with some friends. This canvas is considered another key work of PROJECT 15 and proof of the mastery the artist has achieved. With the utmost rigour she renders the perspective, integrating a complex surreal play of shapes and volumes. The vivid colours, set in strong contrast to one another to capture the play of light and shadow on the young ladies' faces, completely defy the rules of portraiture.
LOL DOLLS
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS A challenge of maximum contrast in black and white, on a square canvas divided into 16 squares, a play of shadows and polka dots. On this chessboard the artist places her daughter's colourful, modern doll collection.
RED LOBSTER sketch for CATS AND LOBSTERS
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS A play of cubic forms and colours that the painter created while preparing her work “CATS AND LOBSTERS”.
2020 - CATS AND LOBSTERS
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS Behind this work lies the artist's wish to create her very own interpretation of a subject that Pablo Picasso explored on several occasions. Two lobsters on a floating chessboard catch the attention of two cats with an obvious lack of intention to devour these crustaceans. The attitude of the cats marks a clear difference from Picasso's interpretations.
FLEETING PRESENT sketch for WAITING
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS A work in pastel tones: two toys from different times. A draft that captures Uta's intention to create a canvas uniting her own childhood with her little girl's. In the foreground a LOL doll; in the background, the past, represented by a blonde Playmobil woman, seated and attentive, with a dog.
WAITING
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS In vertical format, toys from different generations. On the left, in deep shadow, the puppet of a white-haired clown looking away, and a second clown with a melancholy expression and an awkward pose. Both dolls belong to the childhood memories of the artist, who was inspired to paint this work at a time that coincides with her daughter's childhood. The centre of the canvas is empty, a blank division between times past and the present, the latter represented by two of the artist's daughter's toys, a LOL doll and a Rubik's cube. A fragile glass full of coloured pencils seems lost somewhere between the times.
PLATERO sketch for SHE-DONKEY
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS This donkey in working harness, with a gaze that conveys both patience and weariness. An immaculate leather fly mask conceals the cold white of the animal's hinted skull – completely deprived of its freedom, tied on both sides of its head. The cheerful colour palette contrasts completely with the dramatic content of this canvas, which reflects Uta's first thoughts for painting “SHE-DONKEY”.
SHE-DONKEY
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS The work “SHE-DONKEY” is undoubtedly a key canvas of PROJECT 15. Behind this work of great perspective complexity lies a self-portrait of Uta Geub. The artist dares to acknowledge and analyse her own life experience. This she-donkey with open wounds treads an infinite chessboard. The black-and-white board, which recurs again and again throughout Project 15, symbolises the infinite decisions and possibilities that life offers us, which in the end mark the steps of each person's existence. Despite her wounds, the animal conveys optimism, serenity and confidence in a promising future, symbolised by the tender grass she finds right next to a staircase leading down into a dark infinity. The empty child's chair belongs to the painter's daughter, who has reached an age at which she no longer uses it. In 2019, when the artist painted this courageous self-portrait, she had fully overcome her illness and began to devote herself entirely to this series.
LITTLE BIRD sketch for SORRY
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS A small-format work, painted after the related work “SORRY”. For it, the artist takes up a different idea to interpret this subject. Uta depicts a living sparrow that seems to know its fate.
SORRY
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS A dead female sparrow. Still very young, as the yellow colour of her beak shows, the bird died when she flew into the glass windows of the artist's studio. The incident affected Uta so deeply that she decided to immortalise it. Thanks to its vertical format and its palette of browns, this canvas perfectly conveys the state of mind that what happened caused in the artist.
2020 - BEACHGOER sketch for JUST HAPPY
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS For the canvas “JUST HAPPY”, Uta Geub painted this work, which testifies to her great powers of observation. It starts from a sketch of the carefree beachgoer, with somewhat rough yet relaxed features, a certain masculinity and proportions suggesting a sturdy build. The cheap old hat underlines the marked nonchalance of the woman portrayed.
JUST HAPPY
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS Inspired by a scene on the nearby beaches of Costa Ballena, Uta painted this canvas life-size. The lady is completely unperturbed, lost in thought, enjoying her happiness, with carefree movements and a soft smile: a perfect combination of expression, movement and accessories of a woman who is simply happy. An old hat lets through too many rays of sunshine – another fact that does not seem to affect the mood of this carefree beachgoer – and so allows a striking play of light and shadow.
PINK BIRD SCETCH
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS A sketch on canvas for the work PINK BIRDS, a carefree study of proportions and geometry. Its small format does not prevent great visual impact.
PINK BIRDS
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS A bird very present around Doñana Natural Park, on the opposite bank from the artist's studio: the flamingo, in three different sizes and colour combinations, is the protagonist of this play of sizes and perspectives. Painted in layers, sharing lines and volumes, these birds are perfectly identifiable, provided the viewer is willing to solve the puzzle.
2019 - SPÄTES GLÜCK
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS A portrait created with a carefully chosen combination of colours, which combines a brilliant disregard for every supposed rule of portraiture with the technique of a painter at the beginning of her artistic maturity. Without doubt, the purpose of this work is first and foremost to capture an aura: a moment shared between the artist's daughter and her father.
QUEEN
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS The photograph illustrating the report “Vestida de sol con la luna pedestal” by journalist Francisco Correal, a friend of the artist, on the solemn coronation of the Virgen de la Salud of the Hermandad de San Gonzalo, served as the model for this work. A range of strong colours, down to black on one side and pastel and gold tones on the other, shows that this work demands attention. A dramatic moment: the crown is merely hinted at and yet draws all the attention. The angelic face of the Virgin, a flawless, eternal beauty carved in wood. The solemnity of the moment is translated into an aura of dark, geometric tones, without any symmetry, its vanishing point at the centre of the energy.
DOLLFACE sketch for TOY ON THE LINE
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS To find the right way to convey the enormous impact that the doll hung out to dry had on her, the artist painted DOLLFACE, portraying the doll with an astonished expression. Through this portrait the artist illustrates her own spontaneous feeling.
TOY ON THE LINE
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS A life-size baby doll with a very realistic face and a rag body, hung out with the laundry to dry after a wash, turns out to be an image of great impact. Fascinated by the power of the moment, the artist paints, in great detail, with warm colours, a play of light and shadow and a pastel palette, a work that makes an impact every time anew.
CURRITA sketch for SONNENANBETERIN
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS This small-format canvas is based on one of the sketches for the work SONNENANBETERIN. A female Andalusian Bodeguero dog that does not meet the strict standards of her breed. Her appearance and her polka-dot harness speak of the life she leads, and of her owner.
2018 - SONNENANBETERIN
ACRYLIC ON CANVAS An elderly lady in full command of her self-confidence. Her gaze is fixed on the viewer, despite completely dark sunglasses. The woman carries only the bare essentials for her trip to the beach, just across the street from her flat: her dog, an Andalusian Bodeguero, old but very alert, and her beach chair of translucent orange fabric. The background of this work is the main avenue of the Bonanza district of Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
2018 - MONKFISH
ACRYLIC AND OIL ON CANVAS A scene at the food market of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, in soft, warm colours. The work is entirely dominated by the opened flesh of a monkfish hanging from the ceiling; its clean, fresh insides reflect the dim light of the market. The background of the canvas shows the tools of the stall, its aluminium structure, an image of the Virgen del Carmen, and the fishmonger, absorbed in his work, cutting dogfish fillets.