Outstanding works by Spanish artists on display here

By Carla Bianpoen

JAKARTA (JP): Amid the art exhibitions proliferating in the capital city today, the Spanish Modern Art Exhibit at the Lagoon Tower of the Jakarta Hilton International is in a class apart.

Highlighting the significance of the visiting Catalonian Trade Mission, the display of 51 outstanding works of Spanish artists is meant to support Spanish-Indonesian relations. The display will continue through June 30.

While the works are marked by high professional quality, they also allude to their intrinsic Iberian heritage of folklore, mythology and the environment.

Blending strength, melancholy and authentic human values, a universal force is felt flowing through most of the pieces. Color combinations of rust with black, or yellow with black, and here and there a blotch of dark red or transparent white, are like powerful players in a great scheme.

Ralph J. Dosch, the Swiss curator of the exhibit, said Spanish art reflects the deeper layers of life, the impact of political shocks on society and the lives of everyday men and women.

During the years of the Franco dictatorship, abstract works displaying symbols of freedom using sand or other materials came to represent the land, the homeland which many Spaniards then thought they had lost. Indeed, most of the painters have been deeply moved by upheavals in their society and beyond.

The works of the great Picasso (1881-1973), who in this exhibit is only represented by three ceramic items, bear witness to this end. Depicting distorted and demoniac figures was his means of expressing the disorder in society.

Joan Miro (1893-1983) also used art as a vehicle to express his feelings of wrath and dismay at the course of events in his homeland. This exhibit shows a large surrealist sculpture in bronze which is entitled Le Pere Ubu.

While Picasso and Miro lived during a time of severe political upheavals in Spain, which had a direct impact on their works, most of the art in this exhibit was produced long after the Franco years had ended. Nevertheless, according to Ralph Dosch, the grave impact of that time on the parents of these artists was felt by the younger generation, and this is still tangible in their works.

Although they may have been inspired by many other sources, something in their art categorizes their works as Spanish, he said, and rightly so.

Antoni Tapies, born in 1923, is represented by eight varied items. Of these, three are of special interest. In Bottle, variations of dark brown and a splotch of transparent white set the mood of drama. Antoni Tapies is also known for his Arte Povera, which used discarded materials splashed with dots and dribbles of paint.

Imagination

Tapies' art is austere with poetic nuances, as is illustrated in his collage on display, entitled Collage with Black Paper. Its simple all-black canvas, animated by the lines of crumbled paper, lets the viewer create his or her own imaginations.

Luis Feito's painting entitled No. 406, oil on canvas, is one of the most colorful in the selection. Yet, here too, a sense of tension and drama is evoked. Against a yellow background, one finds the illusion of a female figure in black (without a head), with a big splash of dark red suggesting a bleeding heart. Tension is created with a refined distinction, like an elegant but strong arm.

Eduardo Chillida is another fascinating artist on display. Austerity and reductive form mark his works, like in Stele, in terra-cotta and oxide. Attaining a calligraphic effect, the work is simple, with a dignified touch of rusticity.

All of the works of the 26 artists included in this exhibition are examples of internationally acclaimed modern art. Many of these have retained their intrinsic Spanish characteristics.

Modern art perfectly blended with the impact of the society these works were produced in allows the viewers to be absorbed. They feel taken in by a culture other than their own.

Only one dissonant work in the realm of Spanish art as described above was on display, i.e. the work of Susana Solano, entitled Land Parcel. Using black and galvanized steel, mesh and cement, Solano displays a square bin 78 x 174 x 174 cm, with the appearance of a bin for mixing cement at a construction site. In fact, this was what one of the viewers initially thought it was, given some construction work at the Hilton hotel.

The collection of Spanish art was initially on show in Hong Kong under the title "Twentieth Century Spanish Art and the Third Dimension." The collection is part of the rich collection of art belonging to Ralph J. Dosch of the Gallery Collezione DOBE in Switzerland.

Dosch has said that the initial spark of excitement that triggered his desire to make a collection of Spanish art was the purchase of a painting by one of the most outstanding living Spanish artists, Antoni Tapies.

He said the structure of this work was so fascinating that he acquired works by other Spanish artists, often because their particular framework in a variety of media echoed the quality of that first purchase.

"No, no, I have nothing Spanish in the family," he exclaimed when such was suggested.