Lyrical Paintings Corcoran Unveils 40 New Works by Caio Fonseca by Heather Nalbone In Greenwich Village back in the 1960s, when Gonzalo Fonseca was known for his sculptures and his wife for her paintings, before their daughters took up careers in writing and costume design, 9-year-old Caio Fonseca began piano lessons. When critics and admirers today refer to Caio Fonseca in articles and reviews, there is always mention of Bach or Brahms or the nine-foot concert grand piano that sits in his Manhattan loft. But even with his flair for classical compositions, Fonseca wouldnít necessarily call classical piano his forte. Nor would curators at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, where he is this yearís choice for their artist-in-residence program. Whereas most artists choose between music and the canvas, Fonseca excelled at both. His abstract, almost lyrical, works have garnered him popularity and fame in New York art circles and elsewhere. More than 40 of the artistís newest works are now on display at the Corcoran in "Inventions: Recent Paintings by Caio Fonseca," the artistís first solo exhibit in a U.S. museum. Fonseca, who has been known to paint in complete silence to avoid working music into his pieces, claims his abstract pieces are "thoroughly non-narrative." Maybe so, but in viewing the paintings and works on paper one canít help but wonder if thereís some influence from the musical world. Among the squiggles and zigzags etched onto his canvases are repeated semblances of violins and quarter notes from sheet music. Yet aside from a quote by Corcoran chief curator Jacquelyn Serwer, there is little mention of his music capabilities in press materials distributed by the Corcoran, where the focus is less on the artist and more on the distinctiveness of the works themselves. Fonseca has a unique structure that he applied systematically to each of the pieces in "Inventions." He begins his paintings by marking the canvas in charcoal to establish proportions. Each piece has its own color scheme thatís applied by layering paint and carving in various shapes with tools collected from cooks, dentists and piano tuners. Fonseca devotes himself to the procedure, swapping his time between his hometown of Manhattan and a studio in Italy where he isolates himself to paint for as long as five months a year. A brochure accompanying the exhibit describes Fonsecaís process of painting this way: "He is a gifted classical pianist and believes that painting, like music, can communicate precise meaning in a wholly abstract way. Fonsecaís structured surfaces and abstract forms are the outcome of an intricate layering process that is similar to the way music is composed." In its entirety, however, the display is better summarized in Fonsecaís own words, quoted in an essay by Daniel Kunitz: "Ultimately our work is to understand ourselves." "Inventions: Recent Paintings by Caio Fonseca" runs through Feb. 14 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 500 17th St., NW. For more information, please call (202) 639-1700 or visit www.corcoran.org. Heather Nalbone is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.