Salomón Huerta on Ego, Destruction, and Facebook

 

As David Pagel explained, in the 1990s, when much of art concerned identity, “Salomón Huerta made a name for himself by getting rid of the self.”

Huerta painted the backs of heads, life-sized bodies seen from behind, and masked wrestlers, exhibiting around the world and being featured at the Whitney Biennial. In an event co-presented with the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, Huerta chatted with Pagel, an art critic, and a packed house at MOCA Grand Avenue about his work, and how he always destroys it before he makes it.

Method painting

The audience for Salomón Huerta at MOCAHuerta began by showing slides of his work from the past year – portraits of women, nudes, his father’s gun – that he created on canvas stretched over panels. In each case, he explained, he destroyed the piece with a sander, often several times, sometimes in one day, sometimes over months, before painting again on the same canvas. It’s a process he’s always followed, since art school days, when he hated clutter and got used to doing a piece “over and over and over and if it’s not good you get a bad grade,” he said. But, Huerta admitted, the sander is new.

Still, Huerta said, his process isn’t as intense as, for example, Daniel Day-Lewis’ method acting. For his role in “Gangs of New York”, the actor worked for months as a butcher. “My sander’s nothing compared to that,” Huerta said.

Power sander for the soul

Huerta described the emotional stages of making a finished painting, describing his first attempt as characterized by fear. “I get blinded,” he said. “I’m not able to see what I need to see.” His fear sometimes keeps him working on easier paintings instead of more difficult ones. After destroying this first try, his ego takes over.

“As I’m painting I think, ‘Ah, this is going to sell, I’m going to eat sushi, I’m going to travel,’” he said. “Then the next day I look at it and think, ‘Oh my God this is horrible.’” The ego stage sometimes requires therapy – Huerta visits a homeopath.

Guests at the reception for Salomón Huerta“A power sander for your psyche,” Pagel joked.

“She gives me this little white ball, the size of a ladybug, it’s a little remedy,” Huerta said, for the emotions his paintings often stir, for the destructive tendency that drives some artist but that Huerta finds unhealthy.

Pagel asked Huerta the difference between painting and therapy, “It’s really easy to get rid of a problem when it’s a painting. It’s not that easy to get rid of a problem that’s emotional,” Huerta replied. “I have to deal with it. I probably have to call someone and apologize.”

Facebook tales

After ego comes the denial stage – convincing himself that he’s happy with the work, until he destroys it another time.

“Then I come into the piece with no judgment, no happiness. I don’t need to be focused. There’s no ego, no fear, and I’m able to then just do it,” Huerta said. “It’s like meditation.” He added in Q&A, “I have friends who go into the studio and they’re so happy about their painting. Sometimes I feel a little left out or jealous, but for me, I realize that it’s not about pleasure, it’s more about being at peace.”

But Huerta does plan to let the destroyed pieces live on, in a book about his process that will include not only the destruction but another of Huerta’s coping methods: Facebook. When the mood strikes him, when a painting stirs a memory, Huerta pens brief stories that he posts online.   It’s distinct from the way other artists Huerta knows use Facebook, he said. “They’re like, ‘this is the painting I did this morning.’ I don’t do that,” he said.

Maybe he’s crazy

Guests at the reception for Salomón Huerta.The destruction doesn’t always end with a finished work. Sometimes, Huerta noted, he wants to destroy paintings he’s already sold, unhappy with the idea of it representing him. He goes so far as to take it back from buyers. “I tell them, look, I’ll give you a new piece if you give me that old piece. Some, I had to give them a big piece just to get a little piece,” he said.

“They’re smart people,” Pagel replied.

And other artists, family, and friends can be puzzled by the method. “When I tell other artists to destroy, they go crazy, they want to kill me,” Huerta said. But, he explained, the longer he lets a painting linger, the more people – family, friends, dealers, collectors – see it and start appreciating it. “Then I don’t have the desire to improve it, to capture what I really wanted.”

Collectors sometimes disagree with the process, as well. Huerta described making monoprints, and not getting quite what he wanted until the fifth attempt. But a collector asked to buy the fourth attempt. Huerta replied that it wasn’t for sale. When the collector insisted, Huerta penciled an X through the work. The collector said he would pay cash, still. Huerta finally ripped it up.

“He paused and he looked at me and said, ‘You’re crazy,’” Huerta said. “I thought to myself, ‘Well maybe I am.’”

Ex girl to the next girl

Guests at the reception for Salomón Huerta.The new paintings Huerta showed have no particular theme, unlike his past works, which sometimes made him feel too constricted. “I don’t want to create a series anymore. You get locked in,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t hire other artists to paint copies of his work, as some do. “I don’t want to make a production line.”

Whereas Huerta’s past series were based on inspirations he found in movies and magazines, he said, “Now I’m not stimulated by those things. Now I have to work for it and look for it.”

His upcoming show with Patrick Painter, in January, is his deadline for wrapping up work and stopping the destruction process. “I’m not going to invite Patrick over, because he’ll take everything,” Huerta joked.

But fortunately, Huerta said, the pressure of destruction helps him create his best work. “It’s like inviting your ex-girlfriend to dinner with your new girlfriend,” he said. “You have to let it go.” He’s never regretted destroying a work, and he doesn’t thrive on the conflict that sometimes seems to be associated with art, and destroying art. As he put it, “I enjoy going to yoga and looking at the trees and being happy.”

Watch the video here.
See more photos here.
Read In The Green Room Q&As with Salomón Huerta and David Pagel.

*Photos by Aaron Salcido.

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