Juan Uslé Entrando

cm 60 x 46

A painter and phographer, Juan Uslé studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Valencia and then completed his training in New York, in the late 1980s. America represented an important opportunity for growth and transformation for the artist who, since his move to New York, added some new elements to his abstract paintings, such as the use of more linear shapes and the use of black, a symbol of melancholy and memory loss. His piece "Entrando" belongs to this type of work, in which the purity of geometric shapes that seem to suggest the rigor of the urban layout combine with the use of strong colors, outlined against a black background. The work appears to be divided into two parts: the upper part is characterized by a grid of lines drawn freehand, while in the lower part parallel bands overlap into a square, giving a greater sense of space and movement. In the work, references to Kazimir Malevich and Ad Reinhardt can be traced. However, as emphasized several times by the artist during his interviews, the paintings are characterized by a union of abstraction and realism which is evident in the decision to focus on a complex and fragmented space, but deeply connected to the external reality.

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M. Gravel, J. Hortolà (eds.), Juan Uslé, back & forth, exhibition catalogue (Valencia, IVAM-Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno), Valencia 1996. Juan Uslé, blind entrance, exhibition catalogue (New York, Cheim & Read), New York 1999. Juan Uslé. Sone que revelabas, exhibition catalogue (Bonn, Kunstmuseum; Santiago de Compostela, CGAC-Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo), Berlin 2014. Juan Uslé, membrana porosa, exhibition catalogue (New York, Cheim & Read), New York 2016.

Foto Roberto Galasso

Donation by Claudia Gian Ferrari

Painting