Durban Segnini Gallery pay tribute to Master Fernando de Szyszlo

In the north, that trend that gained momentum amid the restlessness of the Second World War in part due to the uncertainty of the present and the instinctive affirmation of the vitality of the action painting that reacted well, somewhat, to preserve some form of the future. In the south, this gesture of grasping was achieved in some way, extracting from the remote past its signs, its strength, and its rhythm. Szyszlo's work allows us to appreciate the foundation of contemporary abstract creation, in a down to ground mode, and in a language loaded with the iconography of centuries released in a new tempo, where a symbolic pact of hope is discerned, in a renewed union of the man and their symbols.

Master Fernando de Szyszlo rescues an ancient ritual iconography and combines it with an abstract representation of the elements that convey the human being to a cosmic dimension: the stars, night, water, fire, and the vague association to those objects as tables or altars that timelessly have been used to run rites opening to the transcendental. The world, with its huge burden of wonder, with its excess, cannot be avoided in his work, but it appears mediated by an unmistakable poetic that turns void the recognition of the forms. What matters in front of them is the reverence that his painting masterfully captures with the resources that dig up the past, as collective unconscious current and that, in a sense, are connected to the surreal legacy. Looking into his paintings is to peek at the threshold of a contemporary temple without figures of gods, but which encourages the eternal.

Not by coincidence, in the book published by the MALI there are included texts by that great experimental surrealist poet Emilio Adolfo Westphalen about Szyszlo, among other memorable pens. In 1966, Szyszlo was invited to participate at the symposium "Resonant autour d'André Breton" organized to mark the centenary of the poet who ignited the imagination of the twentieth century.

Among the works presented by Durban Segnini is Cuarto de Paso (1981) (Occasional room) a painting with a predominantly monochromatic palette of reds and from the apparent strength of an interior architecture breaks a white light beam that opens the way to the intangible. It also exhibits his recent paintings Paracas, la noche (2011) (Paracas, the night), named from the Quechua word for naming winds, allude to the ancestral Andean culture settled in the peninsula of Paracas and whose burial ceremonial centers are so well known as their textiles. In ancient mythology of this region, the passage of death was present by the fabric of life that resisted the tough winds if it had been strong and colorful. In this work, the signs of an ancient iconography and the yellow metal combining with an internal architecture that can disrupt the rhythm or the tone of a rose, an opening just emerged into something unknown.

In another recent work from the Mesa Ritual (Ritual Table) series, the symbolic red, fiery and evanescent, contrasts with the allusion to the columns of rough stone, bone of the earth, in a gray that refers to objects and tools with which the human attempted domestication of all things that exist and of death itself. On the table, organic shapes in various shades displayed a sort of floating feast vital.

This well-deserved tribute by Durban Segnini Gallery, founded in Caracas, Venezuela in 1970 and Miami in 1992, and focused on trends such as Abstract Expressionism, Constructivism and Kinetic Art, reaffirms the timeless value of the foundational work by Master Szyszlo. His work is part of the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Caracas, Venezuela, the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico City, and the National Museum Fine Arts, Buenos Aires.

About Durban Segnini Gallery

Founded in Caracas, Venezuela in 1970 and in Miami, USA in 1992 by its current director and owner Mr. Cesar Segnini. Durban Segnini specializes in contemporary painting and sculpture, focusing on artists who have worked with abstract expressionism, abstraction, constructivism and kinetic art. Simultaneously the gallery strives to promote and diffuse new artistic values, as well as the historical vanguard that has influenced those artists. Worldwide, Durban Segnini Gallery is known for its expertise in areas such as the integration of art in architectural spaces, as well as personalized advice to private collections.

Exhibition: Fernando de Szyszlo.
Opening Date Homage: November 28, 7-10 pm

Durban Segnini Gallery
Address: 3072 SW 38th Ave
Phone: 305-774-7740

www.durbansegnini.com