From A Formal Aspect Luis Pablo

From a formal aspect, I recover manipulated and leftover damaged material that is abandoned, residual objects, (occasional rubbish). They are traces of a hardworking man, of his needs; they are remains of society’s infrastructures to which we belong. On the other hand; these recovered elements, which have been waste without purpose, become intense elements in the hands of a "bricoleur", that in combination with its more intimate aesthetic arguments, are manipulated and recycled towards a work of compositive essence, of which formal nature is abstract and its result, is unique. RECICL-ARTE At some point in time, the communion of povera and minimal art, becomes evident when analyzing my current works; this is undeniable since this parallelism, is implied in some aspects from the moment I conceived them. Nevertheless when executing them, there are sequences that imply me towards a magical posture, opposed to the scientific posture. I am betoken more towards a feeling and an intuition rather than a mere constructed, conceptual rule (less is more) or by the balances of composition by axes. As an author, I am more interested in the debate of finding the aesthetic unit of a feeling, than in balancing an aesthetically pleasing composition. In search of a language that reveals something of that amount of cognitive substance, which has employed the author’s work, when in its execution, has been put under an emotion that exceeds him, astonishes him and nourishes him of uncertainty. - The abstract sense, guides the expression of my work; the harmony in the simplicity of the color, is another reason of being of these works; and the will to remove it from its interior. A "universal language" of visual arts expression, is the firm reason that I have had in making them, with the conviction that I am creating a new paradigm At present, I am attracted to the matter of nature, stones fundamentally. Wherever I arrive and encounter stones in their natural environment, I order and situate them, I voluntarily leave an ephemeral and provoking message, that others may destroy or just might continue there, (because of that provocation). I do not want to hide that there is a calling to the totemic ancestry of our essence of intellectual beings, structured in developing suitable languages and in creating mythologies. What Luís Pablo does is to chose dysfunctional material: which has stopped working or that no longer serves purpose for which they were constructed; but it does, more so, not by the quality of the material that it posses - although I do appreciate it- but by the possible beauty of its shapes. It is this new formal function that interests the artist, that values and exploits it, to which gives new value: an already aesthetic value. The function of the shapes in visual arts is equivalent to the the words used in Literature. A formal universe, a repertoire of shapes, challenges the

artist - if it is truly the creation of a syntax that relates them and orders them. That is the challenge of the creator, that is the quality - or the power to which we call style. And we thus call it this way knowing its extreme complexity and contingency. The creative germ is found in shapes, the potential gene, the genetic capacity of art. There must be control, dominion, fortitude, depth and force in an artist: in short, proportion. The dreadful crisis of values that led expressionism to an extreme of causing the outbreak of shapes, managed, nevertheless, to destroy the formal concepts, although no less, the future of the aesthetic world of art had come to an end. With the materials of those explosions, and of many others which inevitably hamper us, the artist (Luís Pablo) can continue seeding beauty before the overwhelmed eyes of those who very little expected. The formal (and compositive) possibilities of collage explains its important contribution to the vanguard of a global aesthetic configuration. This formal power continues generating, in spite of all its achievements - not that I’m against it in any way.. Luís Pablo’s interest in expressive investigation of collages are observed in his work since 1977. It was in that year when he made a small group of pictures of gay, abstract baroque compositions. The appreciation of shapes, color and the relief of the glued material are also noticed. A gold mine which might have never been exploited. However collage and its mysterious attractiveness was used again in an exhibition in March 1992 and also in September of 1998, we can say that this completed a creative road of classic cut within his essential avant-garde. Although, the painter, surely, felt a restless need to make improvements in that style of contemporary aesthetic, sharing his most intimate and complex ideas in an extensive investigation of expressive formalism. That restlessness arises jubilant in the great series of works, made between 2004 and 2006, that conforms his current exhibition. In it, a great internal logic process is culminated, which Luis Pablo has achieved the use of collage in its more elementary form, to its cheerful use of papiers colés to a very purified and elegant recreation,, of objets trouvés. When contemplating those found objects we do not recognize there original function, integrated in a new dimension, typically found in art. What might have been an easy task of choosing (and selection; also the relation) those objects, is where we encounter certain obstacles, where only a good artist, is able to overcome. That oversight transformation can be frustrating. That risk is surpassed by an essential harmony, which makes each work a complete scope making everything possible (imaginable). In short it is all about foretelling destroyed beauty and

then generating another beauty. There is no recreation in these works, but, a rigorous, essential and premeditated creation, in which shapes as adapted as they may appear, are always conditioned to the concept, the subject, to the spiritual and visual arts universe of each work in itself. It is also used as an expressive, formal means, something that was contained in itself, expressing a universal concept of forms. Luís Pablo composes by compensating and balancing, at the same time relating and coordinating the different elements that are integrated in each work. The composition refers to the double balance of masses and shapes; a chromatic space, generally cold and uniformed, integrated with each other in a harmonious way. Color, is not conceived as a background nor as an adornment or a filler, but it is defined by its integrating capacity of shapes and masses, and, in second term, by its clarifying and illuminating purpose. The blunt materiality, sometimes acts shamelessly and violently ,seducing the painter to an extreme by integrating in some works sparkles of color that have a pure purpose of visual arts of, these are much more material than chromatic. The chromatic scope generates spectral lights, steel like and cold, in which matter acquires a poetic sense of prevalence after destruction, of eternal rubbish; a kind of bitter revenge of the breakage, the chip, the wrinkle and the crack against the manufacturing arrangement, the decorative advertising and the vulgar consumer. A new fierceness, a savagery, a forest generated by destruction and abandonment. The remainders of the industrial consumption, the remainders of the urban technique, refer to the homo faber, simultaneously giving a testimony to, a creative enthusiasm, to its capacity of progress, and its incapacity to avoid deterioration and degradation. An urban epic, which ending is always melancholic. There is a side of Luís Pablo’s paintings little noticed by the critic: the essential humanism that hides and extends to all its creation and overflowing the strict limits of abstraction, exuding itself by the spirit of the contemplator in an abundance of joy of living, cordiality, pleasing chromatic joy and, of memorable references. The abstract paintings of Luís, are expressive and abstract and are filled with humanity, tenderness and promise: it is an invitation to friendship, to an encounter of the creator and the spectator on the edge of art. For that same reason, Luís Pablo has always valued creative aspects more than thematic or technical aspects. In 1954, the last and precise publication of the Uruguayan magazine Alfar, Jose Bergamín quoted: "the living substance of Art, as a mirror, is always outside of oneself [... ] That is to say, that it is exclusively a human reality." A question raised so shrewdly, with a rude devious and acid tone,: "an art that dehumanizes, commits suicide?" Luís Pablo’s art

is a necessary, and vital humanism. From previous accumulation of artistic experiences, human relations and reflections on art, derive this exigency of unloading, of relief, of communication. A catharsis and recognition. Neither finishing nothing nor beginning it ; a simple and natural continuation. But expressive, showy and shiny. Whispers and songs are heard. But also voices are listened to. All an accumulating thrust (never inert) of a visceral and determined artist, that overflowing,hedged by the findings of the floodgates and the insufficient overflows. Luís Pablo is overwhelmed, he grows in this exhibition; the calm river of these calm and harmonious works are found in the force and anger of the torrent. Value and peace, energy and serenity, in a work of amused and innocent gestation and development. The true battle of an artist is channeling and taming chance,. Luís Pablo says: Chance does what I want it to (do). Luís Pablo’s paintings show enormous sensitivity towards matters derived from the manifest imbalance between our planet and the immoderation of human production. This conflict involves great exponential demand of resources of developed societies as the projection of waste of the system, mainly rises new expositions that not only affect the practical questions but, and, to the conceptual ones. A new vital attitude of environmental balance, of a cosmos centered vision, to coexist and not to jeopardize the future. Within this interpretation there is a suggestive profile of Luís Pablo’s work. Thus, the discarded material , "rubbish" according to his own words, incorporated in his work has a later meaning, contributing to close the circuit of external recovery (reusability, recycling or regeneration) of the discarded material. That is to say, implying itself in the complete process of production, from the beginning of the resources to the evacuation, and to the recovery of that rubbish, diminishing the degradation from their surroundings, while taking advantage of the socially categorized idea of having no purpose. It is not a matter of giving another interpretation to the common object, sacralising and desacaralizing the great issues of art, but to incorporate the discarded objects,devoid of any such value, but by such manipulation by the author will again retrieve meaning and gain its own life, giving a place to active works,fully and of great conceptual value to visual arts. In addition, Luís Pablo Gomez Vidales shows his ability to play on the whole of his recycling, in the sense of time. What happened, showing his ephemeral life, now returns, recovering apparently the non-recoverable, enjoying a new time, of a prorogation we could say, and changing around the linear sense of the events that are now entangled in a superposed temporary sequence. Both the concepts that nourish the Reciclarte work, as well as the work in itself, has been able to capture a

historical moment at which they take place; responding and totally translating to the demands and interests of that.