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Vitruvius Nataraja
Artist
Gabriel Orozco
(Born 1962, Mexico)
Date2023
MediumTempera and gold leaf on linen canvas
DimensionsOverall: 78 3/4 × 78 3/4 in. (200.03 × 200.03 cm)
Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum purchase
Object number2024.1
Status
On viewLabel TextOne of the most important Mexican artists of his generation, Gabriel Orozco probes the intersections between culture and nature. Often merging complex geometry with organic forms, Orozco considers the relationship of order and idealism within reality. Vitruvius Nataraja, 2023, encapsulates many central motifs in the artist’s career. Combining Leonardo da Vinci’s fifteenth-century Vitruvian Man with Nataraja, an ancient dancing Shiva, Orozco explores the dualities of male and female, entwining physical perfection with spiritual playfulness. Within the borders of the canvas, the artist encircles the overlay of Western ideals of order and beauty with Eastern spiritualities. Here, Orozco offers the viewer a new paradigm through which two seemingly opposite perspectives can be connected and reinterpreted.