Text by Donatella Mezzotero
|
ANNA MARRA ARTE CONTEMPORANEA GALLERIA ANNA MARRA via sant’angelo in pescheria 32 – 00186 roma (italy) | +39 06 97612389 info@galleriaannamarra.it | www.galleriaannamarra.it | @galleriaannamarra From shape to shapelessness essay by Donatella Mezzotero |
From shape to shapelessness
essay by Donatella Mezzotero
“(…) there is an unknown to be identified, evoked
and partially dissolved
where the dichotomy between thing and creature
becomes indistinct, pierced, altered.”
(Massimo Canevacci, Una stupita fatticità, 2007)
In 1962 Umberto Eco formulated the idea of an open work, “an art which persuades the spectator they are in a universe in which they are not a succubus, but rather a responsible entity, because no acquired order can guarantee a solution,” (Opera aperta) Seen thus, the attention moves from the object to the event, from the work of art to the spectators’ experience of fruition. A work of art is no longer a receptacle of the univocal expression of the artist, but rather an aesthetic instrument used to stimulate the expressivity of those observing it. The visual moment acquires an interactive dynamic, the artwork offers the possibility of being interpreted and of renewing itself from a variety of original perspectives, all equally valid in their uniqueness.
This is in this context with which we must approach Andrés Anza’s work. His sculptures, created entirely in ceramic, seem willfully ambiguous and allusive, brimming with elements of disjunctive values. Though abstract in shape and monochromatic and without nuance, they manage to create in the observer suggestions and trigger in them a desire to interpret the artwork. The titles of the works though seeming to identify the presumed object/subject portrayed: Portrait, Unknown body, Stalagmite, Split drop, Goccia Blu [Blue drop], and referring to the human body or the animal or plant or mineral world, mix different codes such as abstractionism and realism, organic and inorganic. Their shape is only a pretext to involve spectators who are then called on to recognise and define the object they are looking at.
Dualism is the key used by Anza to attract the spectator. With the title: Portraits of an (un)known world, the exhibition presents us with a paradox, with an extremely familiar entity, “portrait”, and then with the concept of “unknown”. In 1938 Paul Valery wrote, “At times I have thought about shapelessness. There are things, spots, masses, outlines, volumes who do not exist except in some de facto way: they are only perceived by us, but not known…” (Degas Danse Dessin). The nature of Anza’s works can be traced to shapelessness rather than shape. Having impressed innumerable suggestions in the material, he guarantees that the work does not have a defined identity, but rather an uncertain one, mobile and fluctuating, transfigured by each interpretation of the observers. It is the perceptions these latter have of the artwork that define it.
The shape-lessness of Anza’s sculptures draws on the innate collective subconscious of the human mind. They are archetypical, images to stimulate the spectator to react as if he/she perceives the reality of the artworks as following constant and shared shapes, albeit unconsciously with roots deep in each of our imaginations. Totemic figures, elements that set us to thinking of masculine or feminine, the stiffness of the spikes or the maternal cuddling of the soft shapes, are all elements that do nothing else but put in motion our instinctive process of decodifying the images according to a pre-existent way of thinking.
The sculptures exhibited inhabit the spaces of the gallery as if they were a surreal, undefinable –precisely (un)known – ecosystem. Visitors may recognise the outline of a mountain, a nest of snakes, a cactus, shells, human shapes or objects, thus giving some sense to Anza’s sculptures. A sense however that cannot to be traced to any given figure but rather to the participative act.
To stimulate the spectator’s interest the artist creates forms that conceal folds, corners, nooks and, in some cases, barely perceptible openings that allow one to observe the interior. However, at the same time, Anza covers his sculptures entirely with spikes, means of either defense or attack, that pricks observers and keeps them at a distance, at the right distance to protect the works’ spaces, as if the latter were living beings. Metaphorically the artist is here referring to the equilibria on which we base the dynamics of our interpersonal relationships and to the concepts of interiority and exteriority as they are perceived in our society.
Andrés Anza’s artistic itinerary is based on a profound knowledge of his medium and an impressive set of skills as an artisan. Mexico, where he was born and learned his art, has an ancient tradition of working in ceramics and Anza has drawn from this as he constructed his own original creative itinerary. His sculptures represent a joining of these inherited traditions and of the development of more recent practices and concepts. For example, Anza’s terracotta is not glazed, on the contrary, it has an opaque finish, obtained by spray painting it with acrylic paint, almost as if trying to hide the real nature of the medium of which the sculpture is composed. Even the colours he has chosen, seem to seek a sort of cancelation: ranging from a natural palette of beige, ivory and brown to fluorescent tones like fuchsia or electric blue but whichever he chooses, they are always used completely monochromatically. This monochromatic approach, did not come about by chance, it was used in the 1950s in the conceptual research style which sought to reset shape to zero, minimalise the image and thus reach abstraction.
Andrés Anza has mastered both the technical knowledge of the working of his medium and many concepts of the main artistic trends of the second half of the 20 th century, creating his own personal language which seeks to overcome ordinary dualistic logic.
THE EXHIBITION:
Andrés Anza
PORTRAITS OF AN (UN)KNOWN WORLD
Galleria Anna Marra, Rome
April 19th – May 27th, 2023
essay by Donatella Mezzotero
“(…) there is an unknown to be identified, evoked
and partially dissolved
where the dichotomy between thing and creature
becomes indistinct, pierced, altered.”
(Massimo Canevacci, Una stupita fatticità, 2007)
In 1962 Umberto Eco formulated the idea of an open work, “an art which persuades the spectator they are in a universe in which they are not a succubus, but rather a responsible entity, because no acquired order can guarantee a solution,” (Opera aperta) Seen thus, the attention moves from the object to the event, from the work of art to the spectators’ experience of fruition. A work of art is no longer a receptacle of the univocal expression of the artist, but rather an aesthetic instrument used to stimulate the expressivity of those observing it. The visual moment acquires an interactive dynamic, the artwork offers the possibility of being interpreted and of renewing itself from a variety of original perspectives, all equally valid in their uniqueness.
This is in this context with which we must approach Andrés Anza’s work. His sculptures, created entirely in ceramic, seem willfully ambiguous and allusive, brimming with elements of disjunctive values. Though abstract in shape and monochromatic and without nuance, they manage to create in the observer suggestions and trigger in them a desire to interpret the artwork. The titles of the works though seeming to identify the presumed object/subject portrayed: Portrait, Unknown body, Stalagmite, Split drop, Goccia Blu [Blue drop], and referring to the human body or the animal or plant or mineral world, mix different codes such as abstractionism and realism, organic and inorganic. Their shape is only a pretext to involve spectators who are then called on to recognise and define the object they are looking at.
Dualism is the key used by Anza to attract the spectator. With the title: Portraits of an (un)known world, the exhibition presents us with a paradox, with an extremely familiar entity, “portrait”, and then with the concept of “unknown”. In 1938 Paul Valery wrote, “At times I have thought about shapelessness. There are things, spots, masses, outlines, volumes who do not exist except in some de facto way: they are only perceived by us, but not known…” (Degas Danse Dessin). The nature of Anza’s works can be traced to shapelessness rather than shape. Having impressed innumerable suggestions in the material, he guarantees that the work does not have a defined identity, but rather an uncertain one, mobile and fluctuating, transfigured by each interpretation of the observers. It is the perceptions these latter have of the artwork that define it.
The shape-lessness of Anza’s sculptures draws on the innate collective subconscious of the human mind. They are archetypical, images to stimulate the spectator to react as if he/she perceives the reality of the artworks as following constant and shared shapes, albeit unconsciously with roots deep in each of our imaginations. Totemic figures, elements that set us to thinking of masculine or feminine, the stiffness of the spikes or the maternal cuddling of the soft shapes, are all elements that do nothing else but put in motion our instinctive process of decodifying the images according to a pre-existent way of thinking.
The sculptures exhibited inhabit the spaces of the gallery as if they were a surreal, undefinable –precisely (un)known – ecosystem. Visitors may recognise the outline of a mountain, a nest of snakes, a cactus, shells, human shapes or objects, thus giving some sense to Anza’s sculptures. A sense however that cannot to be traced to any given figure but rather to the participative act.
To stimulate the spectator’s interest the artist creates forms that conceal folds, corners, nooks and, in some cases, barely perceptible openings that allow one to observe the interior. However, at the same time, Anza covers his sculptures entirely with spikes, means of either defense or attack, that pricks observers and keeps them at a distance, at the right distance to protect the works’ spaces, as if the latter were living beings. Metaphorically the artist is here referring to the equilibria on which we base the dynamics of our interpersonal relationships and to the concepts of interiority and exteriority as they are perceived in our society.
Andrés Anza’s artistic itinerary is based on a profound knowledge of his medium and an impressive set of skills as an artisan. Mexico, where he was born and learned his art, has an ancient tradition of working in ceramics and Anza has drawn from this as he constructed his own original creative itinerary. His sculptures represent a joining of these inherited traditions and of the development of more recent practices and concepts. For example, Anza’s terracotta is not glazed, on the contrary, it has an opaque finish, obtained by spray painting it with acrylic paint, almost as if trying to hide the real nature of the medium of which the sculpture is composed. Even the colours he has chosen, seem to seek a sort of cancelation: ranging from a natural palette of beige, ivory and brown to fluorescent tones like fuchsia or electric blue but whichever he chooses, they are always used completely monochromatically. This monochromatic approach, did not come about by chance, it was used in the 1950s in the conceptual research style which sought to reset shape to zero, minimalise the image and thus reach abstraction.
Andrés Anza has mastered both the technical knowledge of the working of his medium and many concepts of the main artistic trends of the second half of the 20 th century, creating his own personal language which seeks to overcome ordinary dualistic logic.
THE EXHIBITION:
Andrés Anza
PORTRAITS OF AN (UN)KNOWN WORLD
Galleria Anna Marra, Rome
April 19th – May 27th, 2023