Alejandro Correa · DUM
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SIDERAL COSMOGONICAL ATMOSPHERES
Đ ALEJANDRO CORREA IZQUIERDO AT ARTIZAR/2019
In the two universal planes
Where matter and spirit
Sit side by side
There is absolute progress
Entailing permanent purification
Until ultimate perfection is achieved
EUGENE CANSELIET
(in his preface to the 2nd edition of
“The Mystery of the Cathedrals”; Fulcanelli)
In spite of the disconcerting folly of some of his artistic proposals, Marcel Duchamp also bequeathed to us some indisputable and sensible reflections, such as his sententious conviction that: regardless of how clear and precise an artist’s intentions are when creating their work, its possible transcendence – or lack thereof – will always depend more on the opinions and interpretations of the spectator than the author’s own affirmations or declarations. A view I would also undoubtedly subscribe to, and so, overcoming my initial temptation to seek counsel directly from Alejandro Correa (Santa Cruz, 1984), whom I have not seen since his exhibition “Horizontes”/2017, and in light of the suggestive interpretations triggered immediately upon viewing his large and inventive new canvases (which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest successes one might wish for in a work of art), I decided to skip the rudimentary protocol and be guided by my own feelings towards the ‘crux of the matter’, convinced that, even if it might not coincide with the artist’s own view, my interpretation could only enhance the value of his latest art work.
I believe that nothing can avoid a certain synchronicity between Religious, Scientific and Artistic thought at each moment in History.
Hence, now that humanity has a Hadron Collider for the first time, determined to undercover what this universe might have been like in those first three seconds after the Big Bang, we should not be surprised that an artist who puts his ‘grey matter’ to one of the greatest and best uses should suddenly launch into producing a series of large-scale images that might well illustrate and take us on a sensory journey back to such unknown and remote origins.
An interminable search that, within the field of SCIENCE, aspires to resolve one of the most pressing challenges of Physics today: unifying the four basic forces (Gravitation, Electromagnetism, Weak Nuclear and Strong Nuclear); within RELIGION/PHILOSOPHY, seeks to revise the concepts of the Origin and End of the Cosmos-Universe; and within ART-AESTHETICS, reaches for the ABSOLUTE.
This directly justifies the eminently Mystical nature of the works included in this exhibition, an underlying facet already present in his previous pieces; that primordial “dripping”, a Cosmic Soup of shadow and light, emotions and silences, dusks, dawns and… so much life ahead. A Sublime Product that has drunk deep from the increasingly hidden springs that bubble up through the legacy of distinguished and beloved Gnostics and metaphysicists such as Mark Rothko and Joseph Mallord William Turner; especially in their most reductionist and abstract production (a century before the term ‘abstraction’ was coined as the most revolutionary and liberating artistic vanguard); a period towards the end of the artist’s life, rarely captured in images and, therefore, not as popular among the general public, in contrast with the familiar stimulation such forerunners might offer a ‘fine brush’ or ‘sublime brush’ expert such as A. C. I.
Following the – intentionally and provocatively late-romantic – placid harmony and serenity of his early works (Galería Stunt; La Laguna; 2013) and his proto-mystical land and sea scapes, resolved into two strips of colour, in which we see a clear and resolute displacement of his early baroque style towards more reductionist solutions, more akin to minimalism (“Horizontes”; Galería Artizar/2017), Alejandro Correa emerges, at last, with full power, a master of his artistic gift, and abruptly (for a spectator such as me, having not seen any more of his work since “Horizontes”), into the world of large-scale creations, with a collection of sizeable canvases that bear palpating, vertiginous, hypnotic and macro-cosmic (or would that be micro-cosmic) sidereal images, technically executed with his characteristic meticulousness, mastery and precision; but immersed here in a profound spirituality that, for a few weeks, will emanate, like metaphysical outpourings, from the Galería Artizar; located opposite a white-washed church that maintains and prolongs the categorical Romantic character that will always – I hope – accompany this potential great artist of the future – and who for many of us already is – Alejandro Correa Izquierdo.
ERNESTO VALCÁRCEL MANESCAU
La Orotava, 24 January 2019.