Tropical South America

Creative rationale

This artwork captures the high Andean plateau of Bolivia near the Chilean border, where the extreme low pressure of 622.8 hPa reflects the thin atmosphere at altitude, while the cold 6.1°C temperature contrasts sharply with the tropical latitude. The light wind and dry conditions create an environment of compressed energy and brittle tension. In de Kooning's visual language, this translates to aggressive slashing marks constrained by the atmospheric pressure, with cold greys and blacks dominating the palette but punctuated by violent eruptions of flesh pink and cadmium yellow where the temperature anomaly breaks through, creating a composition of fractured energy and urban electricity trapped in thin air.