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Essay by Jim Mahoney for Vicente Pascual /
Imago Mundi exhibition catalogue.
Embassy of Spain Art Space, Washington DC, 2001
Abstract
art has almost always justified its disconnection from representation
by claiming either to be the carrier of an idea, (as representation
doesn't need to claim to do) or to be the vehicle for the expression
of an artist's inner state, inexpressible in any other visual language.
But the visual language of abstraction can be experienced without
reference to specific ideas or psychological states. Its meaning
can be wholly embodied in your experience of it, which can well
be wordless, open, and without the certification of an interpretation.
Vicente Pascual's art relies on just such a proposition, no matter
how primally symbolic his paintings may appear to be.
What
can be said about the syntax of his language is first, that it speaks
in wholenesses, in centralized arrangements of extremely simple
geometric forms on generally monochromatic grounds. Past that, there
is the duality of a visual dialogue of lightness and darkness. What
is dynamic about these paintings is not that they may symbolize
the rhythms of the sun and moon, or the interplay of male and female
forces, or the interfusion of divinity and humanity. What is active
and alive in the paintings Vicente Pascual makes is that they are
so theologically silent. This work neither confirms nor denies any
projected meanings that may, in effect, wash up upon the shores
of an inquiring mind.
His images are almost readable symbols. They have a clarity of design
like that of a national flag, and the interactions of geometric
designs offer a lucid visual drama: two yellow circles partially
conjoin, and the space occupied by both circles has a higher-keyed
brightness, for example. The ground is rich, in these paintings,
with the watery markings and textures of its application, and never
seems static. As objects, Pascual's paintings are humanized by bearing
the marks of their making - they are art objects, though, and so
they are designed to elude us, somewhat.
What Vicente Pascual is able to tell a viewer directly and unambiguously
is that simple forms can have complex visual nuances. Investigating
those nuances, like examining the surface of a crystal carefully,
will yield further investigations. In effect, these paintings are
far more mysterious than they seem, not because they have a subtext
(which most postmodern abstraction offered) but because they don't.
Using what Chris
Gilbert has called, in Pascual's work, "cognitive fundamentals,"
the artist has crafted a visual language that is so immediately
readable that a viewer is coaxed into looking farther into it, since
it is specialized by an aesthetic intent.
Looking farther into Vicente Pascual's art becomes - incidentally
- what George
Steiner has termed a "wager on transcendence." In other words,
these pieces are probably impossible to observe at without asking
yourself what they mean. As singular forms, they seem imbued with
meaningfulness. What we are seeing, though, are speculations - wagers
- about this basic meaningfulness, that a circle may truly signify
something beyond its geometry, something which transcends its visual
facts. Only in the finite decisions about each painting's design
is Pascual being conclusive, however, and what opens forward, in
each of them, is finally a beautiful mystery.
Octavio
Paz said, in a lecture on poetry given in 1971 at Harvard University,
"Modern [artists] looked for the principle of change; [artists]
of the dawning age look for the unalterable principle that is the
root of change." Would Vicente Pascual claim to have discovered
such a principle? Not at all. But in his work you can see the results
of his quest.
J.W.
Mahoney
Washington DC, 2001
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J.W. Mahoney
is a writer and curator based
in Virginia. A graduate of Harvard University, he has
exhibited his work in the United States for over 25 years.
He is currently the Washington Corresponding Editor for Art in America and a contributing editor for the New Art Examiner and he is a professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Maryland. He has curated shows at 57 N, the Millenium Arts Center , Govinda Gallery, the University of Maryland and many other galleries and art spaces in the District and around the country.
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