SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain – As the world entered its first pandemic lockdown in the spring of 2020, Javier Arce lived in a mountain village in Cantabria, a small, sparsely populated region in northern Spain. With supplies dwindling and art supplies running low, Arce gathered oil paint in her studio and began using wood to construct canvas bars. “I made myself an easel and began to paint what was around me at home,” he later wrote in an essay in his 2023 publication. from nature.
Oil painting became a new focus for Arce, which he had previously worked with conceptual way using various media. But now, immersed in the silence and isolation of closure, and inspired Yellow BirdsThe 2012 book of poems by the Irish writer Kevin Power — the artist returned to observation, starting from the abundant nature that surrounded him. Good winter! Seasonal paintings Fundación DIDAC’s 11 intimate scale paintings by Arce are included in this jewel-like series.
Although executed in their own unique visual language, Arce’s landscapes refer to specific paintings in the history of Western art. “Sobre lo cercano (the anti-environmentalist)” (2022), densely textured forest scene rendered in muted tones, XIX. It recalls the most pensive forest scenes of the 19th century French artist Théodore Rousseau, and the bright orange trees called “Sobre lo cercano”. Waka)” (2023) shares the poignant palette of Henri Matisse’s Fauvist phase. These nods to the past reveal that Arce is approaching his work from an analytical perspective, where he seems to consider his place in the long narrative of landscape painting as collaborative and complex.
Despite this intellectual weight, Arce’s paintings remain refreshingly lyrical and open. Trees, meadows, night skies, ponds, and other elements of the natural world appear as dreamlike suggestions rather than direct representations, sometimes dissolving into wonderful layers of markings and colors. It is clear that nature has been experienced and then interpreted strongly in these works, and their flirtation with abstraction draws our attention more to the sensual possibilities of painting than to the particularities of a particular place.
And yet, the geography of Cantabria is physically embedded in these works. Arce stretches her linen over cuttings of hazel, oak, ash and eucalyptus around her property. Originally intended to be wood, they remain unchanged so that each frame is edged with organic knobs. In “Sobre lo cercano (Paul rupestre)” (2021), thin lines resembling hair holes appear to trace and highlight the bumps and dips on the surface of the canvas, which – like the rest of the paintings in the show – is not against the flat regime. the wall The irregular circulation insists on becoming a permanent, even insulated, presence in the nature gallery.
In this way, we cannot live Arce’s work outside the context in which it was created: Nature literally frames and encompasses the artist’s visions. There is a palpable sense of pleasure in these paintings, whose quiet glorification of land reminded me of Martin Gayford’s book 2021. Spring cannot be cancelled Documenting David Hockney’s prolific and prolific pandemic practice in Northern France. For both him and Arce, an unexpected exile leads to vast creative growth.
Good winter! Seasonal paintings It continues at Fundación DIDAC (Rúa de Pérez Costanti 12, Santiago de Compostela, Spain) until April 5. He has been the curator of the exhibition organization.
