2023-06-30 04:00:39
In the aLfaRa art gallery, in Oviedo, we can see the latest works by Cello Sanjurjo. Under the title of “Silences”, the artist offers us her new plastic contributions that stand out for her perfect technical mastery; gouache and brush are in the essence of his creation, but it is his original style and subject matter that really configures such a personal work. The exhibition has about thirty pieces made from the confinement to the present day and, just as the pandemic caused a transformation in each of us, so has happened with his new paintings, more reflective and essentialist.
In this exhibition the artist maintains the coherence that has always characterized her, the small and intimate formats and the extremely delicate technical treatment. Lines and patches of color appear balanced, and the graceful drawings of female silhouettes find their counterpoint in the forcefulness of the chromatic surfaces, which, over time, have been refined, limiting themselves to black and red. It continues to promote the qualities of paper, which, beyond its value as a support, becomes, compositionally and chromatically, a fundamental ingredient, an aspect in which it is close to the way of working of oriental artists, for whom the gesture , space and emptiness are the essence of creation. However, in this exhibition, black prevails by dominating the surfaces, possibly full of connotations linked to the loneliness and silence experienced in those difficult moments of confinement. Her forceful opacity is subdued by a technical mastery that softens everything with subtle gradations. Many figures are partially hidden under the effects caused by the transparencies of delicate fabrics, gauze and tulle, represented in detail, and elegant openwork lace headdresses. points Sweet Perez, director of the gallery, that with this new exhibition “we are reaching absolute black, which, far from being sadness, darkness or pessimism, tries to evoke mystery, deep knowledge, wisdom, secrets that are about to emerge from those intense reds and are hidden in the half-closed glances of those close-ups of the women”. And certainly, the sample as a whole transmits a pleasant sensation of placidity and tranquility, a silence contained in the attitude that each protagonist adopts, in the demure gestures and in the closed or half-closed eyes.
Visiting “Silences” we have the possibility of meeting, face to face, with paintings in their purest form, sincere art, born from the naturalness and authenticity that its author transmits as a person and as an artist. It is important, now more than ever, to underline these words that have always been linked to Chelo Sanjurjo, an art that speaks from honesty, contradicting the fashions and opportunism that invade the contemporary artistic scene and turn art into a series of shows so banal as expired.
I recently commented that, in the face of this spectacle society promoted from the mediocrity of our institutions and reinforced, unfortunately, by educational and museum representatives, there are still artists like Chelo Sanjurjo. There is more love, sensitivity and transcendence in one of these silent works, than in all the ephemeral exhibitionisms to which we are accustomed. Going through the sample “Silences” in aLfaRa, I remembered “Backwards“, beautiful book by the French symbolist writer J.-K. Huysmansa title that we could translate as “against” or “against the grain”, a novel in which its strange protagonist, always “against the current”, oblivious to the literary and plastic fashions of the moment, has among his hobbies tracking down and collecting those disturbing and fabulous prints by Odilon Redon, refinements of a different art, rarities necessary to continue feeding the imagination.
This is how I see these new images by Chelo Sanjurjo, as a unique opportunity to get closer to the purity of plastic creation, to feel the emotion and tenderness that beats in each of his works. Because what less can we demand of art than to be a stimulus for our senses?
silences
Cello Sanjurjo
aLfaRa, Art Room, c/ Carlos Casanueva 16, Oviedo. Until July 28
#Stimuli #senses #Nueva #España