ESTEBAN VICENTE

Paintings, toys, graphic work.

March 10 – December 30, 2012

 

This exhibit presents lesser-known or unpublished aspects of the artistic production of Esteban Vicente’s American period: a section dedicated to his graphic work, a textile piece, and fourteen small sculptures or toys that have not been shown in over a decade. We also include a selection of paintings and drawings from the permanent collection that establish a dialogue with the toys.
His graphic work is represented by:
        The books in collaboration with his second wife, the poet and Hispanicist M.ª Teresa Babín, for which he made illustrations: Fantasía Boricua. Estampas de mi tierra, 1956 and La Hora Colmada, 1960.
        The magazine IT IS directed by the sculptor Philip Pavia and created by the artists of the American Abstract Expressionism movement and those who later joined it from the magazine’s debut in 1958 until 1964. It brings together images of the works, the writings, and the opinions of the most-notable artists and critics of the time.
        Six prints belonging to the Museum’s collection including Comstock, 1962 presented in the São Paulo Biennial in 1963; the series of prints made for the exhibits organized by Spanish Refugee Aid (SRA); and the two prints made in 1998 for the opening of the Museum.
        The book A mis soledades voy de mis soledades vengo, his last graphic project in which the artist made ten silk screen prints that accompany a selection of writings from the Spanish Golden Age. Eight of the original collages for the project accompany the book.
Among the different mentioned works one finds: woodcuts, lithographs, silk screen prints, and the incorporation of photomechanical procedures.
The tapestry Daytime, 1970 – 79 was woven in India under the supervision of the Modern Master Tapestries Gallery of New York, and is part of the rebirth of this art in the twentieth century. In North America, a group of artists in the 1960s interested in the treatment of surfaces more than in subjects introduced innovations in the execution of this technique.
We include twenty seven paintings and sixteen drawings from our collection that represent the process of evolution of his mature work in dialogue with the toys. The viewer can enjoy the materiality of the paintings and through it discover his concerns for the creation of a personal world–colorful, luminous, vibrant, and sensual–characterized by chromatic harmonies that evoke an interior landscape.
The toys or divertimentos show him playing with space and are the transformation in three dimensions of the colorist and formal concerns that are reflected in his paintings and collages.
The exhibit concludes with the video Esteban Vicente: Portrait of an Artist made by Madeline Amgott in 2007. An introduction to the figure of Vicente, his creative process, and the birth of his museum in Segovia.

Once again, Esteban Vicente’s versatility in the use of different techniques in the service of his own artistic expression is clearly shown

Sponsored by Amigos del Museo.