H U G E A U X

by Hugeaux and contributing author Catalina Jose Rodriguez

Arte Mecco is an art form of innovative style created by the artist colourist and Photographer Hugeaux, in Marion County, in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana in the United States of America in 1991. This unique approach to painting blends contemporary art, modern art, abstract art, Art Deco, and Art Nouveau. Elegant and powerful, its form has become the trademark of its creator and inventor. Hugeux, was born in 1961 in Duval County, in Jacksonville Florida. By painting the beauty of women in Arte Mecco, Hugeaux shows his African American heritage. Only the values traditionally assigned to this people are transformed, through aesthetic resources. A deep influence of Catholic-Cherokee values is also present in this art form, as well as from arts and cultures from the Orient. This style of painting is a fusion of social values and aesthetic techniques that are put together to create a distinctive and compelling work of art.

Arte Mecco first took on the name of Hugeaux¡¯s women, until the turn of the millennium in 2000. At this time it became apparent that it was an unusual style of watercolour painting. Arte Mecco draws its inspiration from a variety of sources. These range from the bible to Native American culture, as well as other forms of fine arts. Classical Modern Dance is one of them. Hugeaux emulates the geometric shapes and colours of the human form in Modern dance, as well as the fluidity and movement witnessed upon stage, on paper. In experimenting with colours, Hugeaux has turned to natural juices such as Aloe Vera, and flower petals. He has also discovered new colours from fruits in a constant search for aesthetic resources. The pomegranate fruit juice, the cactus apple juice: or prickly pear dye, the mulberry, and the four-o-clock flower are juices and flowers that he uses to create his paintings. These materials serve a purpose in both Arte Mecco¡¯s content and form.

The Years from 1991-2003 The development of duplicity: Hugeaux¡¯s Modernism

During this time African American women transmitted a continuing inspiration for Hugeaux¡¯s Arte Mecco. The artist is concerned with showing their full formed torsos and their distinctive, seductive curves. He is fascinated by the supple grace of their dignified femininity. Although elegant, seductive and feminine, these women are always portrayed as strong. Hugeaux achieves this, among other resources, with the use of various shades of colour; combining delicate detail with dark, thick manes of hair. He uses the fire and duplicity of strongly pronounced curves, which are at the same time highly feminine, and detailed with elegant, feminine features. During this time Hugeaux develops a distinctive modernism where he portrays delicacy in strength and masculinity in femininity. Also, during this time he begins to combine modernism with influences of antiquity, bringing his influences from around the world. Some of Hugeaux¡¯s most celebrated paintings of Arte Mecco are born during these years. The artist¡¯s devotion to the beauty and dignity of African American Women continues to inspire his present collections, as does his observation of the strength in beauty.

2003

The female form has always been custumary to Arte Mecco. During this period we observe a heavy influence of the Mongolian culture, as well as influence from his African American Heritage. Hugeaux works much with bamboo, (one of his many unconventional painting tools), as he would with a brush. This is an African American technique. He begins placing more emphasis on abstract shapes as he does on the thickness of lines. We find a heave of cross-pollination from Egyptian to Chinese art of antiquity. The hieroglyphics or patterning, bring depth into the image. Colours chosen by Hugeaux suggest that the modern approach used to divide the image into halves, is a sense of geometry alluding to classical biblical imagery, as well as to Art Deco. During the next decade the artist is experimenting and with blue, orange and cactus apple dye, and blending them to create skin tones. Cactus apple dye is extremely sensitive to light, though when fully dried it has a deep bronze colour. This will be discussed in further detail.

¡¡The Cactus Apple or (Prickly Pear) Dye

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The cactus apple dye is a permanent pigment of the Florida cactus. It grows during the spring and fall seasons when the cactus does not bear the yellow flower of the usual cactus, but instead it bestows a plump burgundy fruit with about 100-200 small seeds. One Cactus fruit is known to contain about 5-12 plumb fruit. This fruit is known in Mexico as a tuna and can be eaten. On the outer skin it contains circular patches or micro needle thorns. In Florida, the Indians, (Cherokees, Seminoles and Creeks) used it for tanning the body. Other uses for it are teeth whitening, temporary tattooing, and beautifying hair.

Varying in tones, the cactus apple brings forth an ink of burgundy, a deep rosy pigment, or a red, wine colour. It can also radiate a rich blood pigment. All these tinctures blend into a hue that creates a fleshy deep burgundy rose.

The dye takes to paper easily, bleeds well into crevices and stains wood as well. It mixes well with other colours and is easily covered underneath them. Although it can sometimes behave highly unstably, enhancing the hue of every colour it is mixed with. Under any colour it projects its reddish hue. But when fully dried the dye turns into bronze. Arte Mecco is the only art that uses this juice and style for dyeing paper with the cactus apple fruit, to create artwork.

¡¡The Characteristics of the Pomegranate Juice Dye, or Royal Purple

In the early 2000s Hugeaux discovered the use of the pomegranate Royal Purple dye.

The pomegranate juice has served a similar purpose as the cactus apple dye in Arte Mecco. The Juice of the pomegranate fruit elicits a rich dark royal purple colour.

Hugeaux discovered that the pomegranate dye exudes a royal purple colour, which is different to the burgundy of the cactus apple dye. But over a period of time the pomegranate dye changes a little in colour and hue. When it is applied to paper, as in a blot, it creates a Saturn-like ring effect around its rich royal purple. It also appears as if it were stained. This ring around itself, and the stain-like appearance, gives Arte Mecco a dreamlike quality, contributing to the abstract feature of this art form.

The pomegranate juice is easy to apply and, as the cactus apple dye, mixes well with other watercolours. Only the pomegranate dye can be camouflaged within other pigments of purple, making it extremely difficult for the natural eye to detect its hue. This royal purple has yet another characteristic when mixed with other colours. It leaves traces of bronze-like hues, around the rims of its Saturn-like rings.

Chance and accident were responsible for the discovery of the uses of pomegranate juice in Arte Mecco. It happened on Christmas 2001 while Hugeaux had returned on holiday, after 21 years to his birthplace on 1977 West 16^th Street, in Jacksonville, Florida. He was eating a pomegranate while working on new Arte Mecco creations, when a seed covered in fruit dropped on the paper. It created a royal purple mark in the form of an egg yolk, with the Saturn-like ring. Hugeaux quickly collected the juice to be used in further development of his technique. He observed that this fleshy, juicy seed of the pomegranate fruit is similar to an egg with a purple yolk. Since then Hugeaux has searched for new discoveries and captured the pomegranate juice dye in a series of Arte Mecco paintings on paper. The pomegranate and the cactus apple have given a naturalistic, and fresh aesthetic approach to Hugeaux¡¯s defining art form.

Formulating an Arte Mecco uncharacteristic prior to its discovery, the pomegranate dye in combination with the cactus apple dye has provoked a search for new and vibrant hues. The pomegranate dye allows the artist to observe the colour soak in paper, while it creates the Saturn-like ring effect. Arte Mecco is the only known art form that uses the pomegranate juice dye, the cactus apple dye and the Four-o-clock flower dye. Among the various examples of earlier Arte Mecco are paintings titled: Belinda, #308/2001, and Francella #293/2001, and Danashae 292/#2001.

¡¡The Character of Aloe Vera and it's Role in Arte Mecco

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Applying Aloe Vera as a substance to further the development of Arte Mecco is a technique that brought Hugeaux¡¯s creativity into another territory. The use of Aloe Vera is essential to the growth and development of Arte Mecco. This ancient plant, with its healing properties has enhanced Hugeaux¡¯s creative endeavors. Aloe Vera has a thick balm which is difficult to control when it first touches the paper. This balm tends to dilute any substance it is applied to. Hugeaux¡¯s discovery of Aloe Vera as an Arte Mecco material also had to do with chance. But they say that nothing comes by chance. Chance is only being at the right place at the right time. Hugeaux discovered the use of Aloe Vera precisely while painting Polynesia peering into the Ribault River in 2002, a work that has now become representative of Arte Mecco. As Hugeaux was creating a Hyglyx of a veil to cover the feminine bird/human-like subject of the painting, he applied Aloe Vera. Then he observed how applying this balm to the skin of the Polynesia brought lustre to the image. As he continued to apply the balm to the entire painting the Hyglyx veil, of an indigo colour ink, was lifted and smeared in a thick coloured paste-like display of dots. This gave the veil, (therefore the Hyglyx) an interconnected feel created from the dots. This discovery became essential to the Hyglyx and to Arte Mecco as a whole.

The strength of Aloe Vera carries a crucial purpose for Arte Mecco. When applied to watercolour, this balm glistens and then absorbs into the paper. It is a heavy yellowish gel, distilled from the plant naturally. Sometimes it has strands of red running through it. Another unconventional instrument which the artist uses to paint, is the Aloe Vera leaf-as the gel should not be left to dry too long. Yet the balm itself serves more than one purpose. The first is to prepare a paper by coating it with Aloe Vera before creating a painting. Aloe Vera softens it and allows an easier flow of the watercolours. The second is to combine it with the watercolours, as it enhances the richness of the colour¡¯s hue. Applying Aloe Vera to watercolours causes them to boost into a kaleidoscopic effect that contributes to the aesthetic dreamlike, abstract quality of the paintings.

When it is heavily concentrated and applied to paper, Aloe Vera acts as a coating to preserve paintings. The effect is a cloth-like feel similar to that of silk.

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As the balm of the Aloe Vera is mucus-like, and difficult to apply, Hugeaux has found a way that emulates that of the ancient African, and African American Indian people. The mucus or balm of the Aloe Vera plant contains a gel membrane that is packed with liquid juice. Hugeaux mixes the gel with the liquid, so that he is able to apply it evenly to the paper. In this process he uses a knife and blends the two substances in his hand, in order for the applying process to be done as quickly as possible.

Aloe Vera originated in the warm, dry climates of Africa. It is mentioned in the Bible that in removing Jesus from the cross his body was wrapped in aloes and myrrh. The plant was used by King Solomon, who is known to have valued it highly. It is also known in Asia and the Pacific, and is found folkloric Japanese, Philippine and Hawaiian cultures. These are major inspirational factors for Arte Mecco¡¯s interaction with pacific cultures. Aloe Vera has drawn the attention of many sophisticated minds, and it is thought that a Sumerian clay tablet found in the city of Nippur. Around 2200 BC one of the original documents that include this plant among those with great healing powers was written. The discussion of these medicinal values is found precisely in an Egyptian document, the Papyrus Ebers, written around 15500 BC.

The Interpretation of the Hyglyx and it's Modernist Characteristics

Hyglyx is a term originating from the word Hugeaux and borrowed from the patterning designs in Ancient, Egyptian Art, and Hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphic is a word that means symbol. Hyglyx are a modern aspect of Arte Mecco. The word Hyglyx is a plural word. In Arte Mecco, the Hyglyx are a patterning used and constructed in a pluralistic manner, much like Hyerogliphics. The ornamentation of Hyglix, as in Hieroglyphics, is a conjunction of pluralism, which in turn is a characteristic of modernism. Pluralism is a theory of modernism that sustains that there are two kinds, or more than two kinds of ultimate realities. This is manifest in many of Hugeaux¡¯s paintings. We may observe it especially in Polynesia Peering into the Ribault River. Philosophy distinguishes between abstract and concrete potentiality. For the sake of argument we shall take these as of two of the realities speaking in Hugeaux¡¯s modernism. ¡°Abstract potentiality belongs wholly to the realm of subjectivity; whereas concrete potentiality is concerned with the dialectic between the individual¡¯s subjectivity and objective reality¡± The oscillation between these two realities, or potentialities, constitutes much of the complexity of Arte Mecco. The subject of Polynesia Peering into the Ribault River is placed, isolated against society. Yet through the plurality of the hyglyx, she is made one with the rest of the environment she is positioned in. Through the use of the Hyglyx, which are not only on the veil that covers her but also outside her shoulder as a peering eye, as something outside her, but that is touching her- she is connected with the rest of the world that she is so isolated from. The Hyglyx then, here serve as plural factors of unity. There is an oscillation between the abstract potentiality of the Polynesia¡¯s own subjectivity, with her back to the world, and the objective potentiality of that same world. Moreover, there is an oscillation, a dialogue between the abstract potentiality of the painting itself, the way it is created, and the objective, physical reality of the Ribault River in Florida. There are more than two oscillating dialectics going on here.

Pluralism then is the analysing factor which is present within the Hyglyx used in Arte Mecco. Ornamentation is recognized as in King Solomon¡¯s era of virgins and has deep biblical influence. ¡°And thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen, and thou shalt make the girdle of needlework.¡± And indeed, in some of Hugeaux¡¯s Arte Mecco, especially with the emphasis on ornamentation with the hyglyx, it seems as though the delicate work he has achieved with natural juices and native instruments would have been done with the stroke of a needle. This is the effect that he has accomplished. There are numerous biblical references, especially to the Exodus which appeal to his deeply catholic upbringing. These, although evidently modernized allude to the exact colours quoted in these scriptures, as well as to the geometry that is mentioned in the construction of the tabernacle. ¡°And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare; and for the gate of the court shall be a hanging of twenty cubits; of blue, and purple, and scarlet and fine twined linen, wrought with needle-work.¡±

There are other references which may be found to the curtains of the tabernacle constructed by the Israeli people, where almost perfect symmetry regarding measures is mentioned as well as bronze colours for the tabernacle. The ring left behind by the pomegranate juice is reminiscent of this bronze colour so repeated in the exodus. It is as if Hugeaux had taken the instructions of colour and beauty mentioned in these classic writings and transposed them into his own artwork with his own style, technique, and aesthetic vision of the world.

The Ying-Yang feature of Arte Mecco is also present in the Hyglyx and its interpretation. The Hyglyx draws the eyes towards ornamentation. This process is in itself very effeminate. As is the allusion to Solomon¡¯s virgins described earlier. Geometry, however, is a definitely masculine quality. A Hyglyx constellation of dots can give the impression of an outline of a torso or figure. It can also give the impression of pearls, beads, or confetti suspended in mid air; as well as flower petals, peacock feathers and sun rays. This is intrinsic to the forming of Arte Mecco.

In its abstract quality the Hyglyx can change the structure of an Arte Mecco painting. Configuration of the painting called Dotty # 63/2002, where a colourful and automotion effect of paints are intertwined within the image, the Hyglyx, as placed upon these shapes, give the painting a retro 1960s lava lamp feel.

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Furthermore, in its abstract quality combined with the influences of Art Deco, Hyglyx are able to create images of any ornamented dream or hallucination. Its water effects are borrowed from Egyptian hieroglyphics. This process of curling straight lines, are also applied to other areas of Arte Mecco. The word Hyglyx has become a new term in the art world and cultural vocabulary, as a defined and structured method of patterning used throughout Arte Mecco.

Classic Arte Mecco

Polynesia peering into the Ribault River, painted in 2002, in Jacksonville, Florida, is a classic example of Arte Mecco. The painting is created with the cactus apple dye and Aloe Vera. The bird like silhouette of the subject perched on the branch shows a feminine figure. Her body is combined with the colours blue, orange and yellow, as well as ten coats of cactus apple dye. The Wing-embroidered tattoo on her back gives her the effect of an embroidered wing on her body. Polynesia¡¯s peacock tail is illuminated by the morning sunlight, and creates a liquid ray upon a sunbeam. There is a transposition of the Pacific breeze and the Atlantic swamp that creates a sense of balance and dialogue. It gives the impression of flows and movement wind on her peacock feathers.

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Indigo jet-black mane gives the painting a swampy feel. Influences of Egyptian hieroglyphic technique or Hyglyx are the major patterning on this display in this painting. This is similar to the history of Arte Deco. Arte Mecco has slanted the effects of Art Deco, in this painting, by classically exposing Art Deco to modernism. This is the origin of the term Arte Mecco .

A strong Mongolian influence is crucial in this particular Polynesia Peering into the Ribault River. New Guinea, Fiji, New Caledonia, etc. for example have been compared to the swampy bayous of Florida Georgia and Louisiana in the southern hemisphere. The painting appears to be continuously damp or wet. This is partly due to the application and coating of the Aloe plant.

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¡¡Polynesia Peering into the Ribault River

Polynesia Peering into the Ribault River, perhaps one of the most representative examples of Arte Mecco, was created in the Fall of 2002 in Hugeaux¡¯s hometown. The entire painting is composed of watercolours, cactus apple dye and Aloe Vera. Her bird-like silhouette, perched atop a branch displays a matriarch figure. Her body is made of a mixture of blue, orange and yellow, and ten coatings of the cactus apple dye. Polynesia Peering into the Ribeault River has a sister creation titled: Capricia staring into Atlantic. The Position of the Polynesia¡¯s goddess- like pose and is suggestive of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. Jean Ribeault, a Hugenot inspired the name given to the beautiful and serene river that motivated this painting. The French called it during the 1500s ¡°the most beautiful, rich and pleasant in the world.¡± A strong Indian culture has kept the treasures of this river as a sapphire of aquatic beauty. Located in the northern part of Jacksonville, the Ribault River is an interlocking of fauna and flora. Some are Muscadine vines, palmettos, magnolias, swamp grass, honeysuckle and pines. As the steam rises in the morning we may observe oyster eating egrets, ospreys and herons fly over. The river has a tendency to change from sapphire blue to dark tea colour and then to a shimmering mirror green. It is still as it intertwines with the sun and sky. Although isolated from society, the Polynesia in Hugeaux¡¯s painting is one of a kind with nature. Her Perching and glaring into the river has a strong wildness to it that recalls a bird. The Indians of this region used this river for inspiration, food, song and marriage. The artist painted this piece during the morning and was inspired by the sun rays.

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The wing-embroidered tattoo on her back gives the effect of a wing placed on her body. The decorating itself would be feminine, but the patterns are clearly masculine. She seems to have a peacock tail that illuminates the morning sunlight, and creates a liquid ray upon a sunbeam. The curving of the tail is feminine although the feathers are masculine. There is an interaction between Pacific breeze and Atlantic swamp that seems to create a flowing breeze. These are all dialectics that create movement in the painting. Her black mane gives the painting a wet marshy feel. The influences of Egyptian hieroglyphics in Hyglyx are the most prominent patterning in this painting. As would art Deco, this painting contains abstraction, distortion, and simplification. As does art Deco, there is influence from Ancient Africa and Egypt, as well as geometry and modernization. It even has elements of Russian Constructivism in its deep celebration of beauty. Beauty for the sake of beauty the painting almost seems to say, in regards to nature and femininity. When examined closer it celebrates masculine beauty just as much. As if one could not exist without the other. Elements of Art Nouveau such as leaf like patterns are other elements of the painting. The most obvious ones would be the river, and the feathers of the Polynesia¡¯s tail. All of these elements in Arte Mecco with their intrinsic qualities seem to be transposed. Where the geometric patterns are traditionally a symbolize masculinity, in Hugeaux they seem to be a enhance femininity. The Polynesia¡¯s torso, although geometric, also seems to have a leaf-like pattern as in Art Nouveau, giving it a soft, feminine curve. The subject, (a female bird) who traditionally would be an emblem of weakness or placed at a disadvantage, is placed with her back to the viewer and at the top of the world, (or perched on a tree) as a symbol of delicate strength.

It has been established by pure logic that the Hyglyx is a feminine feature of the ying-yang in Arte Mecco, as it draws the eye toward ornamentation. This painting is populated with Hyglyx, but the values which are traditionally assigned to femininity and masculinity are highly being questioned by Hugeaux. It is my belief that when a painting is finished in Arte Mecco feminine and masculine features blend in a perfect aesthetic dialogue that makes it almost impossible to determine one from the other. Is the Hyglyx, in it¡¯s drawing the eye toward ornamentation behaving in a truly feminine fashion or is it not rather, on the contrary, behaving in a masculine way by changing the focal point?

Balance is one of the major aesthetic instruments of Arte Mecco. In Polynesia Peering into the Ribault River the Hyglyx circle at upper right of the painting, against the sunrays, offsets its central focus. This offset causes a switch into the next element. And so on and so forth. In this way the technical dialectic serves the ideological one in Hugeaux. This results in a rich sense of visual pleasure and harmony.

Furthermore, aside from any philosophical consideration, Hugeaux¡¯s mastery, his interchanging of femininity and masculinity is, as the French would say ¡°rehussi.¡± He appears to use of Art Deco¡¯s more masculine geometrical style and blend it with Art Nouveau¡¯s softer outlines, to create the female forms. The Hyglyx is used to switch the viewer¡¯s focal point from feminine to masculine, from Ying to Yang. The feminine Hyglyx of the rosy cotton sky reflect upon the Hyglyx of the black orbit moon rays, borrowed from Art Deco. The former seem to be borrowed in turn by Art Nouveau. The tips of the rays of the black orbit moon are painted using cactus apple dye. They symbolize the rays of the sun, as ancient Egyptian art. There is a dialogue between the painting and Egyptian ancient drawings, which tilts back and forth using the Hyglyx, and the cactus apple dyed tips of the beam as focal points. The Hyglyx, then serves as point of dialectic between the painting itself, the various realities it presents to the viewer¡¯s imagination, and objective history. It is the modernising element of Arte Mecco. The Hyglyx of the Mariposa give another dimension to the painting. The wing tips of these Hyglyx are bulb-like, resembling a cocoon. But the entire torso is not covered. This gives the impression that the cocoon is being formed. As these Hygyx are formed with various coatings of the cactus apple dye, they place a bronzing effect upon the shimmering gold. In addition to creating movement, this gives a sense of morning, birth and motherhood to the painting. The gold liquid is the mirroring effect of the black orbit moon upon the river.

In this painting we may find elements of all the art movements it is influenced by. But most importantly it is a perfect example of its own genre. The sense of liquid movement, involving lines and curves, demonstrate the influenced of art nouveau. It contains use of both individual and patterned Hyglyx, used in feminine and masculine ways, as well as to change focal points. Symmetry and geometrical balance is present in the form or torso of the Polynesia and between the two circular Hyglyx, showing the influence of art deco. Arte Mecco in general and this painting in particular are ideologically modern in the plurality of the subject matter they contain, as well as in their aesthetic language. They are also modern in that subject or subjects are isolated from a society (or environment, in this case), that they simultaneously belong to. And finally it is abstract in that it works with imagery that departs from representational verisimilitude. An example of the latter would be the male peacock feathers in the Ribault River, where in reality no peacocks have ever been seen. This is a wonderful way to pay homage to the majesty of the river, and the Native American people who inhabited it through Arte Mecco.

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The Weaknesses of Arte Mecco


Arte Mecco, as we have established, is an extremely progressive art form.¡¡ Despite its indisputably resourceful nature, provocative aesthetic qualities ¨Cand especially due to its contemporary existence, it has yet to prove that it will indeed, resist the test of time.¡¡ This is a challenge for both the artist and the art form.¡¡ Perhaps the question lies not in whether Arte Mecco, as any other art form, could be perfected, and in what ways. But in what specific achievements can be attributed to this specific art form and what it fails to convey to the spectator.¡¡ There is no question that Hugeaux, with his Aloe Vera technique, and use of the CAD, (Cactus Apple dye), as well as of the Pomegranate Juice, has created an undoubtedly unique and perhaps inimitable painting method.¡¡ But whether or not his Arte Mecco paintings will survive and enter the scale of Universality is another matter, which requires a much closer analysis and engages other issues.¡¡ Hugeaux¡¯s timeframe in Art history as well as Arte Mecco are again completely contemporary.¡¡ Therefore the query is by no means an easy one to answer.¡¡¡¡ By analyzing a sample of Hugeaux¡¯s arte Mecco we may take a closer look at his methods and techniques, as well as at the level of achievement in his portrayal of sentiment, feeling, and movement as related to the subject matter of his work.¡¡ Again, we are referring to how successful and visually articulate the dialectic between his aesthetic form and thematic substance is.¡¡ As well as how fruitfully it comes through to the spectator.¡¡ For lack of space and time, in this chapter we will analyze only one of his Arte Mecco paintings.¡¡ We have already established that Mongolian Art has been a core influence to the creation and style of Arte Mecco.¡¡ By comparing Hugeaux¡¯s Painting to one of Mongolian Origin, one which has already withstood the test of time, we may be able to arrive at the best possible answers to the difficult issue of Universality in Arte Mecco.¡¡¡¡ This may require us to point out some of Arte Mecco¡¯s weaknesses.¡¡


¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ Arte Mecco is generally concerned with balance, perhaps even meticulous about it more often than not.¡¡¡¡ This issue must be discussed in detail.¡¡¡¡ Assaj #, is an artwork, representative of some of the crucial weaknesses in Arte Mecco.¡¡ The Hyglix, which draws the eye toward ornamentation, is an essential element that Hugeaux uses to achieve this balance.¡¡ A characteristic Ying-yang effect is used, to portray contrast and dialogue between femininity and masculinity.¡¡ This is an essential aspect of the painting in aiming toward and achieving this balance.¡¡¡¡ However, this well accomplished balance that so concerns the artist, (and which perhaps may endow a painting such as the Polynesia Peering into the Ribault River with a timeless quality), may serve a paradoxical effect in this particular piece. The way the body and face of the Assaj is created already offers enough verisimilitude to reality, as well as sufficient focal points for the spectator to concern himself with.¡¡ Hugeaux seems to overcharge the spectator with focal points external to the subject that are highly inefficient and superfluous, and only reduce the artistic power of the painting.¡¡ Assaj is staring at the spectator; she appears to be looking both forward and backward. This is an effect that is not only achieved by the use of the Hyglyx, but also by the talented brushstrokes of the artist.¡¡¡¡ The eye is drawn directly to her face.¡¡ She appears to be naked, and her body, ornamented with black Hyglyx seems to be entirely tattooed.¡¡ The curves of her neck and back are thin and delicately traced, as her torso, appears to be turned back.¡¡ Yet her face is almost disturbingly masculine, almost phenomenal. She appears almost as if she was a hermaphrodite.¡¡ This irregularity between her face and her body is a wonderful Ying-yang effect, perhaps the most successful one about the painting.¡¡ However the artist intended to balance this disproportion of the subject¡¯s face and body, as well as the incredibly harsh yet aesthetically thriving features of her masculine face, with effeminate watercolor splashes at the bottom.¡¡ These watercolor splashes intend to give balance; but paradoxically break the movement and life of the painting.¡¡ Assaj ¡¯s body carries a flow with the curving of her bronze, tattooed figure.¡¡ This flow comes to an extreme halt when touched by these excessive watercolor brushstrokes.¡¡ The blue ornamentation of the woman¡¯s tresses and the contrast between the masculine expression on her face, and the delicate curving of her neck and torso, are enough balance needed to achieve the Ying-yang effect, and even the switch of the focal point that Hugeaux brings into play in his work.¡¡ The wonderful movement of the face looking forward, as well as backward, and the abstract, surreal twisting of the neck, does not seem to call for anything else, especially not something that will distract the eye from¡¡ Assaj¡¯s Female subject.¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡



The Assaj painting seems to be the juxtaposition or union of at least two different art movements.¡¡ The top of the painting appears as graphic, planned, whereas the bottom, watercolor splashes perhaps have the intention of seeming playfully improvised.¡¡ But this is not completely achieved.¡¡¡¡ The watercolor splashes are unfortunately unable to portray the spontaneity intended by the artist.¡¡ They are meant to appear as freehand, but they seem too concerned, again, with giving balance to the painting, and ironically do impede its movement and flow.¡¡ In other words, they are too planned to appear as freehand and but they do not have a graphic quality either.¡¡ They do not seem to be justified either aesthetically or thematically.¡¡¡¡ If anything, they would be abstract, in that they depart from an accurate representational reality.¡¡ They seem to create a physical space, external, from the subject, a sort of environment that perhaps seeks to have the quality of a hallucination or dream. They interrupt the dialectic that happens within the rest of the art work, and disrupt its essential dialogue.¡¡ This happens because the subject in itself creates a physical space already, that in no way seems to be connected to the space created by the watercolor bots and splashes.¡¡ There is a solitary blot of red on the subject¡¯s back that may be the only watercolor splash that means to unite the dialogue of the piece.¡¡ But it is a poor attempt to connect the two disengaged visual environments.¡¡ Although the watercolor splashes perhaps achieve the visual equilibrium that the artist is aiming for, they make the painting stagnant.¡¡¡¡ They steal the focal point from Assaj¡¯s expression, which is extremely powerful and significant, one of the painting¡¯s best achieved qualities.¡¡¡¡ Arte Mecco is at its best when it is inspired by movement and when the rhythm and cadence of a painting do not come to a sudden halt.¡¡ Perhaps it is most efficient and powerful when the artist¡¯s constant search for balance is not completely resolved within the artwork itself, but instead the spectator is allowed to participate in that quest.¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡




There clearly is Mongolian art influence, blended with Art Nouveau and Art Deco, as well as Abstract Art in this painting.¡¡ A distinct influence of Art Nouveau is the form of the Hyglyx that ornate the subject¡¯s body. They appear to be quite organic, reminiscent of a ¡°Tiffany Style.¡±¡¡ The blue ornaments on her black tresses are rhythmic and floral-like.¡¡ The curve of the woman¡¯s neck, her shoulders and torso are formed by flowing lines that are particularly representative of Art Nouveau.¡¡ Her waist seems to have been created by a ¡°whiplash¡± brushstroke that is also characteristic of that movement.¡¡¡¡ Particularly, this whiplash brushstroke creates balance in itself, making the watercolor work appear superfluous.¡¡ It is bold, dynamic brushstroke that seems to blend both graphic and free-hand techniques, in a way that creates a sense of life and movement.¡¡ It is very successful in portraying cadence and emotion.¡¡¡¡ We may observe another, thicker, watercolor brushstroke in the area below the woman¡¯s body.¡¡ This one is likely to have been mixed with pomegranate juice or CAD (cactus apple dye) since it is red in hue. This curve also appears to be whiplash style, but it is traced in a direction almost opposite to the curve of the subject¡¯s waist.¡¡ Unfortunately the direction of watercolor curve breaks the movement of the subject¡¯s rhythmic curves and of the entire painting while it creates an abstract space external to the subject.¡¡ There is a Hyglyx at the bottom left hand side of the painting, on top of a rose watercolor blot.¡¡ Although the pinkish blot at the bottom left hand side, contributes to breaking the movement of the painting, this black Hyglyx ( also created with the whiplash effect) does create a balance of shape and color to both the torso of the subject and the watercolor blot.¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

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¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ At the top right hand side of the painting, the spectator sees a different style from the cadenced, rhythmic brushstrokes that may be observed in the lines that shape Assaj¡¯s body and hair ornaments.¡¡ More however, may be said about her hair ornaments.¡¡ Even if these are not geometric in themselves, they are however, arranged in a geometric-like crisscross pattern, that may be a bit reminiscent of a mathematical, geometric, Art-Deco influenced shape.¡¡ Again, the hair ornaments seek to build the Ying-Yang effect with femininity and masculinity. This balancing of feminine and masculine factors sought out by the painter is perhaps more winning in this case.¡¡ At least it does not subtract from the truly aesthetic and organic quality of the subject¡¯s facial expression and torso.¡¡ Perhaps little visual or truly artistic need is there in making these arrangements geometrical.¡¡ The shape of her perfectly weaved tress has no verisimilitude in reality and it departs from the abstraction of her bronze, tattooed torso.¡¡ The artist seems to have aimed for abstraction at the bottom of the painting by detaching her from a representational reality, with the watercolor brushstrokes and spots. While this is effective in creating a sense of space, the multiple directions and colors of the brushstrokes remove and distract focus from the subject, and perhaps also the subject matter of the painting making this highly ineffective.¡¡¡¡¡¡

As in the Polynesia Peering into the Ribault River, in this painting Hugeaux attaches his subject to the outer environment by means of the Hyglyx.¡¡ Only in this case the environment seems to be, dissociated rather than pluralistic.¡¡¡¡ The style of the Hyglyx at the top left hand corner, beside the subject¡¯s face, is different than the Hyglyx at the bottom left hand corner below her body.¡¡¡¡ This Hyglyx is clearly more geometrical in shape, and thus pertaining more to Art-Deco.¡¡¡¡ It is attached to her face by a small bronze-like circle..¡¡ Perhaps this effort would be successful if it were visually accomplished rather than portrayed from a thematic point of view, as a mere visual premise in the painting.¡¡¡¡ The Hyglyx beside the female¡¯s face could be seen as a form of ear ornament forming an almost geometrical pattern made of three-sided, incomplete squares or rectangles that join themselves through their lines and are decorated by circles at the end of the lines.¡¡ The complete difference in style of these hyglyx as compared to their brother at the bottom of the painting makes the piece seem like two different, dissociated works.¡¡ Instead of unifying and blending the styles Art-deco and Art-nouveau, and abstract art, into a harmony of multiplicities that come together by union of different techniques, Hugeaux has estranged them into an art piece that seems disconnected from itself.¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡


This is by no means to say that Arte Mecco is not universal or will not stand the test of time.¡¡ Of course this is just one piece, and, much has been said about great artists.¡¡ In this particular piece, Hugeaux¡¯s mixing of watercolors with natural juices to enhance the hues, and maintain them, proves to be far better than his ability to create visual dialectic.¡¡ His thematic approach does not measure up to his technical achievement in this particular piece.¡¡ But in no way does this apply to all of Arte Mecco.¡¡ And we must remember, that this painting is but one step further in the constant search for a particular signature, that he does continues to acquire in a variety of outstandingly different paintings, that amount to a production of over 700 pieces, starting in 1987. ¡¡


We shall remember that Mongolian art is a core influence to Arte Mecco.¡¡ Here we shall compare a painting of Mongolian origin, The Musician,# to Assaj, by Hugeaux.¡¡¡¡ There are various reasons why The Musician has already withstood the test of time.¡¡ In the first place the Mongolian painting has more movement to it, than Assaj.¡¡ She is playing her instrument sitting still on a piece of land yet there is much tempo to the painting.¡¡ The brushstrokes at the bottom of it seem to resemble those made by Hugeaux in his Assaj, only, they do not break the rhythm, or the movement.¡¡ They do seem to have the freehand style yet they are traced in the same direction as the dress of the musician, and as the instrument she is playing.¡¡ The ornamentation on of the musician¡¯s dress, and head, could be reminiscent of the Hyglyx that ornate Assaj.¡¡ Curving of branches in the trees and the hill that decorate the natural environment of the Musician could be reminiscent of Art Nouveux tendencies and whiplash brushstrokes in Hugeaux.¡¡¡¡ There already seems to be balance in the way the colors are blended in the Musician.¡¡ The balance in the musician seems to be almost in perfect harmony.¡¡ There is a natural Ying-Yang.¡¡¡¡ But this natural Ying-Yang contains also certain unsteadiness, which is natural to art and life.¡¡ There is perhaps, an element of masculinity in the dressing of her hair, which is made of crisp, geometrical lines.¡¡ This hair dressing is geometrical yet uneven and asymmetrical in the peak that it has at the top.¡¡ It¡¯s shape and lines could be reminiscent of Art-deco indeed.¡¡ There is almost perfect symmetry to the ruffles of her dress, which although tending toward ornamentation they are sober and also geometrical- forming almost perfect, folded squares.¡¡ The perfect folded squares are, unlike the hair dressing, even and seem perfectly proportioned.¡¡¡¡ This is balanced, and enhanced with the soft curves of the apron, which falls over the ruffles, the ornaments on the dress, the curve of the mountain she is sitting below, and of the grass she sits on, which follows the curve of the dress.¡¡ The branches on the trees are also curves as are the leaves and the two birds sitting on the left branch.¡¡ Everything, except her hair dressing, seems perfectly rhythmical and cadenced.¡¡ But an essential element that balances most of the soft curves in this painting is the musical instrument at the center, which is a straight line and is the central focal point, also providing¡¡ the crucial element for the title of the painting.¡¡ Nothing is stronger than this simple focal point in The Musician, and nothing is more austere.¡¡ One simple straight lined instrument in the hands of a woman surrounded by a beautiful curvy environment.¡¡ The entire painting seems natural and effortless.¡¡¡¡ This Mongolian painting is quite unlike Arte Mecco, where the focal point is switched constantly, by the opulent Hyglyx, from one point to the other and back to the first and so on and so forth.¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡
This painting opts for one single, clear, and minimal focal point which the entire painting balances from to create rhythm and movement.¡¡¡¡ Nothing breaks the rhythm, and everything is straightforward.¡¡ The painting seems to emanate life.

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¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ A modernization and abstraction of the Ying-Yang is evidently in play with Arte Mecco.¡¡¡¡ But the two abstract spaces created in this particular painting are not in dialogue with each other.¡¡ Perhaps that is one of the deepest weaknesses in this Arte Mecco painting.¡¡ Another one of Hugeaux¡¯s most serious risk attempts, in Arte Mecco lies in one of its deepest strenghts:¡¡ His search for balance.¡¡ In some of the paintings, such as Assaj, this quest is somewhat inorganic and artificial.¡¡ It is related to, and it involves the creation of spaces and realms, that seem somewhat arbitrary.¡¡ The use of the Hyglyx is not completely justified in some cases- and subtracts from the real artistic matter of the painting.¡¡ It is possible that to be truly Universal and timeless Hugeaux may need to imitate the Mongolian quest for balance in its verisimilitude to life, where balance is not complete, ever, instead of searching it artificially and arbitrarily though visual techniques, that achieve a piece that seems stagnant.¡¡¡¡¡¡ Anything resembling anything living and moving does not contain perfect aesthetic balance or regularity.¡¡¡¡ It is probable that Polynesia is a great painting, which will stand the test of time for many years, leave and provoke dialogue for artists and critics. This is so because Hugeaux is able to blend many influences into one single style, and reach a coherent departure from reality creating enough verisimilitude for the spectator to identify with.¡¡ He is not able to do this in Assaj.¡¡¡¡ I believe, that he is at his best when, his female-masculine, human forms reach a level of representational abstraction, enough to allow him to depart from reality, blending different methods, but not enough to allow him to forget that verisimilitude to anything that lives and moves doesn¡¯t have the quality of perfect regularity.¡¡ And that achieving perfect regularity in a painting will only eradicate its movement and take away the sense of life in it.¡¡ Perhaps, growth in Arte Mecco would mean a redefinition of balance.

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We must consider that perhaps the search for balance is deeply linked to a modernized quest for the divine in Arte Mecco. It involves perhaps a quest for spirituality. Aesthetically this quest involves a transformation of Egyptian Hieroglyphics into the Hyglyx, as well as the appropriation of the Ying-yang. In offering an observation of how the use of the Hyglyx in Assaj is compared to the Mongolian Musician, we may perhaps come to a better understanding of this quest for balance in Arte Mecco. In comparing Assaj to The Musician there are various elements that may be observed about the use of ornamentation. Firstly what draws attention about both paintings is how the subject is placed within its own environment. Secondly, what comes to mind is the how ornamentation is used to place each subject. In Assaj, for example, the tattoo Hyglyx may be compared to the ornamentation used on the subject of The Musician¡¯s dress. In the Musician, the ornaments, as the dress itself, serve to separate her from the rest of the natural environment, creating balance, and movement as we have seen with the curving and geometry. She would otherwise be ¡°naturally dressed¡±. In Assaj, the Hyglyx tattoos serve to place her in an environment that already departs from representational reality. In the sense that the body of Assaj is naturally presented, i.e., naked, her body is a natural element to the composition of the painting, it is a positive feature to the illusion of balance and a successful appropriation of the Ying-yang. The problem in this painting would be the subject-environment relationship in the search for balance as it is achieved aesthetically. The relationship of the subject with its environment, in a modernist sense, as presented in the painting is not quite achieved. The naked Assaj is already a somewhat abstract figure placed as a natural element in a space which uses a visual language that already exists with a degree of independence from visual reference to the world. This is a high risk attempt that Hugeaux takes quite bravely. Unfortunately, placing an abstract figure, that is also a natural figure, in an abstract environment, through the hyglyx, does not create a sense of balance, as in the Polynesia. It creates a sense of uneasiness and confusion. The message and sentiment of the painting is unclear and confused. Moreover, it is not fully delivered. I believe that it is not fully developed. This risk attempt is quite achieved in the Polynesia, because the Polynesia, (also an abstract, yet natural figure), is related yet, detached from the also, somewhat natural environment it is placed in. This contradictory relationship between subject and environment is quite the essence of modernity. In Assaj, there is no relation whatsoever between the subject and the imprecise space created by the watercolor brushstrokes. Therefore, the purpose of the Hyglyx, of modernizing the Ying-yang, in creating balance, is completely counterproductive. The painting seems to have missed the marrow of modernity.

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Perhaps the spirituality and the balance searched for in Arte Mecco are best achieved as stated earlier, when the artist allows the spectator to participate in such a quest. This would again raise the question of modernism in Arte Mecco, and how that quest for balance implies this modernization of the Ying-yang that involves of course pluralism.

In the modernization of Hieroglyphics and the whole practical and theoretic blending of techniques in Arte Mecco, the relationship of the subject to the environment is essential. It is of little importance if the environment be abstract or realistic. This again raises the issue of the use of the Hyglyx. Modernism is a difficult movement for critics and artists both to define. ¡°Modernity is something that progresses in company with, and at the speed of the years, like the bow-wave of a ship. Last year¡¯s modern is not this year¡¯s. Apt as it is to the sensibility of the age to prefer such terms, to insist on the association with time and history, matters have now reached the point where we wish to fix and stabilize the modern. When an extra-historical dimension is admitted,¡­ the semantic instability of the term becomes obvious. The notion of the ¡®modern¡¯ undergoes a semantic shift much faster than similar terms of comparable function, like, ¡®romantic¡¯ or ¡®neo-classical¡¯; indeed, as Lionel Trilling says, it can swing round in meaning until it is facing the opposite direction. We use the term historically to locate a distinct stylistic phase which is ceasing or has ceased. (hence the current circulation of counters like Proto-Modernism, Palaeo-Modernism, Neo-Modernism and Post-Modernism). We also use it to sum up a permanent modernizing state of affairs and the state of mind and view of man it engenders ¨Cthat type of consciousness frequent to the modern world, obsessed by a compulsion to keep up, reduced to despair by the steadily increasing speed of the total movement.¡¯ ¡±

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In this sense ¡®Modern¡¯ is not a historical but a stylistic term. ¡°It has been urged that Modernism is our inevitable art- as Gertrude Stein put it, the only ¡®composition¡¯ appropriate to the new composition in which we live, the new dispositions of space and time.¡± When we examine modernity closely, we understand that the Hyglyx (which in itself involves pluralism.) is ultimately the most modern aspect of Arte Mecco. We also understand that it is an essential strength and essential weakness in Hugeaux. Especially in Assaj, he is able to abstract reality and place it in his imagination. But his departure from realism into abstraction does not quite fulfill itself. In this piece his modernization of Egyptian Hieroglyphics is achieved to a certain extent. The space created by the subject is quite successful only, the second space, created by the blurry watercolor brushstrokes is dissociated from the first one. This generates a discrepancy, instead of dialectic. The artist¡¯s risk attempt to make a departure from reality into abstraction, in a modernization of the Ying-yang, using Hyglyx (which involves the pluralism in his art form), is quite ambitious. Only the art work does not speak to itself, or within itself. In order for the risk attempt to be successful there must be at least one dialogue between the two spaces created by the artist. It should ¡°hold itself together by itself through the internal force of its style.¡±

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Arte Mecco is quite an ambitious enterprise and has many risk attempts. It attempts to place subjects in a somewhat abstract environment seeking and many times projecting the Ying-yang effect. Perhaps, the balance searched by the artist must be found in the projection of the rhythms and impulses of the subject matters that he is painting rather than finding an artificial, rather formal, balance in them. Perhaps the search for balance is an integration of pluralism in his art form or perhaps it is a search for spirituality. Either way, it is my belief that perhaps the notion of balance in Arte Mecco could be redefined.

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David Sylvester speaks of the art of the twentieth century, as the art of the aftermath. ¡°The classic relationship between the art of a great creative period and that of its aftermath is that the latter develops to an extreme degree, in a narrow way, and at a lowered emotional temperature, certain discoveries made by the former, with a tendency to isolate those discoveries from their context and to exaggerate their peculiarities. This is essentially a kind of exploitation, and therefore tends to be richer in ingenuity than in energy. The art of the aftermath somehow cannot liberate itself from the domination of the great period; it can neither make a radically new contribution, nor can it go right back to an earlier period to find a fresh point of departure.¡± Arte Mecco has made however, radically new contributions all discussed above, such as the use of Aloe Vera, and natural fruit juices, as well as the Hyglyx. In its growth and artistic development it could endeavor perhaps to use the Hyglyx and the pluralism in an attempt to produce artworks that have a stronger dialectic within themselves, if they be inclined toward abstraction. And that, include freedom and movement in their search for balance, when they project a world that departs less from a visual representation of reality. Or, when they do both, that they surpass themselves, like in the case of the Polynesia.

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