EXCERPTS FROM pioneerworks.org/broadcast/perpetual-motion-geronimo-cristobal 'Making in the tides of disaster: Geronimo Cristobal on tragedy and displacement in the work of Katsushika Hokusai, Constancio Bernardo, and Josef Albers.' ORIGINALLY WRITTEN ON JUNE 15, 2021 BY Geronimo Cristobal is a New York-based scholar and curator specializing in modern art, colonial Southeast Asia, and the region’s ties to the American empire. He received an MFA in Art Criticism from the School of Visual Arts and an MA in American Studies from Columbia University. "Both Hokusai and Bernardo’s pictures have a habit of looking different after you’ve peered closely at key details. The parts begin to fit together. For example, the lines in Perpetual Motion suggest a split horizon as if the frames have been caught in an instant, a momentary gift of light. The brushwork and colors strangely remind me of the delicacy of the tense scenes depicted in Hokusai. Once reminded of the birdlike qualities of The Great Wave, Perpetual Motion’s abstract lines are evocative of waves, of light, of falling water. And always a sureness of tough, swift, supple fracture." With thanks and commendation to the writer for this well written retrospection.
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