Karl Ullger’s Echoes of Legacy’ Book Launch
Artist Karl Ullger launched his book Echoes of Legacy in the City Hall yesterday evening. The launch was part of a series of Gibraltar Literary Festival fringe events.
Echoes of Legacy reproduces a selection of Mr Ullger’s works that in some way pay homage to or are inspired by important paintings from art history. Accompanied by explanatory text, the book juxtaposes the original paintings (from, among others, Manet, Millais, Velázquez, Sorolla and Degas) with Mr Ullger’s work.
The evening opened with Mr Ullger being interviewed by journalist and author Alice Mascarenhas. She described the artist as “someone who never puts the brush down.”
Mr Ullger explained how he became an artist, detailing his academic background. He said his style was best described as “expressive.” Analysing his self-portrait, which pays homage to works by Édouard Manet and Mark Gertler, Mr Ullger said that painting a self-portrait was “not about vanity or documenting yourself—it’s about recording a moment of emotional response.”
Mr Ullger’s former teacher and work colleague Martin Gonzalez then joined the on-stage conversation to help discuss Mr Ullger’s ‘Ophelia’ which pays homage to a similar work by John Everett Millais which depicts the suicide of Shakespeare’s heroine. The colours deployed in ‘Ophelia’ were inspired by a landscape painting by Ander Zorn. Mr Ullger said his own work left our Ophelia’s face to “create mystery and ambiguity.”
Mr Gonzalez said Mr Ullger’s range was “enormous” and that he had an ability to “not copy but also to interpret.”
The Movement Collective’s contemporary dance interpretation of the painting, choreographed by Zoe Bishop, was also screened.
Mr Ullger’s ‘Japanese Garden’ was then discussed, a work that pays homage to a painting by Mariano Fortuny. Mr Ullger highlighted that his version was a “more tactile, textured piece” that explored mixed media. When talking about ‘El Balcón’, Mr Ullger said he was drawn to simple urban scenes like those explored by Andalusian Costumbrismo painting: “I find a certain romanticism in an empty patio.”
Mr Ullger’s depiction of the nazarenos during an Easter procession in Spain—inspired by a similar scene painted by Sorolla—was the result of the original work’s powerful impact on the artist. Mr Gonzalez added that he thought Mr Ullger’s painting avoided the “heaviness and morbidity” of the Sorolla’s and was “lighter…it has more life.”
Further paintings and correspondences were discussed including ‘The Quiet Inferno’, a painting that comments on men’s mental health and pays homage to Edvard Munch and Francis Bacon. Mr Ullger announced that the painting had been acquired for GibSams with the £1,000 proceeds going to the charity.
An interpretive dance by The Movement Collective responding to the painting was staged to close the event.
Copies of Echoes of Legacy are available via: https://ullger.bigcartel.com/ 25% of every book sale goes towards supporting GibSams.
