I was invited by Asociación Amigos del Bellas Artes to conduct a tour of the collection focused on analyzing its flowers. During my visits to think and prepare for the tour, I noticed that there was no notable presence of flowers in the currently exhibited works. Faced with this challenge, I thought to start by discussing my own relationship with them, paying special attention to flowers in textiles in various paintings. I chose to begin in the battle room with works by Cándido López. We listened to "The Garden of Delights" by Hildegard von Bingen, a German abbess, composer, philosopher, politician, and naturalist from the 12th century who studied plants and flowers for medicinal use. Getting into the mood, I described my symbiotic relationship with flowers and how they have taken over my work. I particularly work with orchids, fascinated by their superpower, which allows them to thrive in all climates and ecosystems, seeking their strategic locations, reproducing, and becoming the largest family of flowers. Above all, they have the most wonderful morphologies and colors in the floral universe. Following Maeterlinck, it's interesting to analyze the fact that flowers, essentially condemned to immobility, seek to expand and escape upwards from the fatality below. To free themselves, invent or invoke wings, evade, twist their fate, approach another realm, and penetrate a world in constant movement. I seek to extrapolate this passion they inspire in me to the pieces I create. I brought some of my works for the audience to touch, feel, and observe the variations of textures, colors, and figures of these metaphysical beings. Surrounded by works from the War of Paraguay, I proposed that we observe those works and ask ourselves about the absence of flowers in these historical portraits of battles. Perhaps in this gloomy climate of death, destruction, violence, and blood, Cándido López found no place for them to be painted, because for many, they only represent life, fantasy, transcendence, and also femininity. Could it be that Cándido López did not discover the ferocity of flowers, their strength, and their power?

In front of works with floral textiles, I mentioned how flowers from America arrived on European fabrics. The interest in the novel and exotic flora and fauna of our continent led to a savage plundering. They were taken to the gardens of European kings, later appearing in their textiles, completely transforming Western fabrics with new morphologies and colors. Together, we analyzed "Musicians" by Ribera: we see men in a scene frozen in time except for the movement in the flowers of one man’s shirt, painted as stains that accelerate the entire scene at that point. We compared the differences in works with floral textiles and those with bouquets, vases, or ornaments from different women. It is evident that artists, when painting flowers in bouquets, were naturalists with a botanical and mimetic gaze. When painting flowers on textiles, they allowed themselves freedom and fantasy: perhaps invented flowers, with strange colors, from another universe. The next stop was the work "Don Juan Sandoval" by Bernaldo de Quirós: a portrait of the gaucho from the Rosas era. In a challenge to demanding masculinity, the figure is covered head to toe in flowers, as if a vine had taken over his body. The contrast is with the laborers: there is not a single flower in their clothing. Here, flowers represent hierarchy: they are only for some. In the same room, we looked at the triptych "Retablo de Jesús" by Alfredo Gramajo. We observe the Nativity, the altar for Holy Week, and thirdly, the Crucifixion. The retablo where Jesus is born explodes with flowers, as if the artist sought to convey life through them. They present a vitality that even surpasses the presence of the Child. The size and colors of the flowers are more striking than the face of the newborn. In the second retablo, the flowers embrace the altar and the depicted characters, continuing on the floor, covered by a floral carpet. Their abundant presence anticipates the vitality and transcendence of this moment.

These paintings are like an ode to flowers. They are not limited to being a bouquet on the table; they take over the entire work.

We continued along this line regarding flowers associated with transcendence and perhaps supernatural power, stopping at the painting "Cruz Velacuy-Cuzco" by José Sabogal. This Peruvian artist is fundamental in the history of Latin American art for being one of the creators of the indigenous movement in Peru, breaking with European academic colonialism.

This work, permeated by Andean cosmovision, shows us a crucified Jesus whose body has transformed into flowers. The flowers are the Body of that Christ. Flowers that are quick brushstrokes, mixes of colors, stains, body. Again, we can think that the resurrection to come, with the vitality and transcendence it signifies, is symbolized through these flowers that envelop Jesus.

Finally, we paused at "Nubes en la Sierra" by Walter de Navazio. This work made me think about what the planet was like before the birth of flowers. When the first angiosperms began to sprout, their power was such that they started to cover the entire Earth. About 90% of plants and trees, including crops, have flowers.

They came to color the planet.

Flowers are not delicate; flowers are not weak. Flowers are powerful, warrior-like, fierce, creators. They devastate this surface and take it over, forever changing all ecosystems on Earth.

We concluded the talk reading a poem by Juan L. Ortiz.

Thank you Asociación Amigos del Bellas Artes and Susana Smulevici for the invitation

Special thanks to Claudia Casarino, Monica Millan, Constanza Martinez, Lila Scagliarini and Cayetana Muniz Barreto.