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THE EXHIBITION:
SOLEDAD SEVILLA
04/02/2023 - 28/05/2023 Curator: Lola Durán Úcar
© Sal 1998
Mi propio paisaje [My Own Landscape] is an exhibition set out as an immersion into the world created by the artist, who understands painting as a life attitude, presenting us with her ordered, light, pure and frank landscapes based on an extensive enquiry into geometry, space and light. The exhibition has been specifically designed by Soledad Sevilla for the Kubo Kutxa gallery, inspired by the suggestive space in which it is installed. It takes its title from a line by Pessoa, “I am my own landscape”, and it focuses on four vital stages in her career: 1. Nada temas [Nothing to Fear] Soledad Sevilla has created an installation work especially for this exhibition entitled Nada temas (2023), based on a line taken from the poem Nada te turbe [Let Nothing Disturb You] by Saint Teresa de Avila. It is a fleeting, fragile installation creation that carries her concerns about line and plane over into architecture. She outlines the depth and volume of the structure she draws in space with traces of light, which are actually simple cotton threads installed rhythmically and geometrically across the void, weaving the air to create an atmosphere of sublime spirituality. As the title suggests, art has the ability to reveal mystical truths.
2. Plot Permutations and Variations The purest geometric abstraction, serial drawings from the outset of her career, in which she created purified, fictitious spaces by repetitively using line to produce an emotional experience of quasi-mystical serenity. These works were produced in the 1970s and 1980s on rolls of continuous paper, creating these endless geometric structures. Some of these works, in many cases unpublished, were produced during her time in Boston and can be seen in this exhibition.
3. Agricultural Architectures
The observation of nature is the source of inspiration for the series in the large central gallery space.
Arquitecturas agrícolas [Agricultural Architectures] is inspired by the landscape of La Vega in Granada, specifically by the tobacco drying sheds scattered throughout this county. These are traditional, quite rudimentary rural constructions in which tobacco plants and leaves were usually hung to protect them from the sun and rain, while simultaneously facilitating ventilation during the drying process. The artist evokes and poetically reproduces these constructions in malleable materials such as metal, neoprene or paper, creating plays of light such as those produced when entering these humble constructions.
Retablos [Altarpieces]. Soledad Sevilla also rescues these tobacco drying sheds, constructions that are slowly disappearing, so that they can survive in our memory. Her Retablos, paintings that recreate the rhythm and textures of fence-like boards, inviting us to walk around them while stopping to look at their details, are inspired by this vernacular architecture, by the rickety wood that remains of these architectures of agro-industrial origin. The intervention in this gallery space, consisting of Retablo A, Retablo B and Sonata sin futuro [Sonata with No Future], is arranged like a modern altarpiece, an installation, a chapel in which the paintings form a majestic, spiritual space that surrounds us, welcomes us and overwhelms us. She manages to trigger a transcendent experience.
Arpilleras [Hessian]. She now focuses on a more humble, fragile and ephemeral element: the hessian that covers these constructions, isolating and protecting the plants from inclement weather.
This material can be found in works such as Nuevas lejanías negro [New Black Horizons], Las lunas oscuras de cristal [The Dark Moons of Glass] and Las lunas oscuras de plata [The Dark Moons of Silver], as well as in the Silencio [Silence] series. She is interested in the airiness of these fabrics, the light they filter, the diffused landscape they offer through them
4. MUROS [Walls]
From the purest geometric abstraction, we traverse in her Muros to the most lyrical abstraction, works in which the geometric and organic converge. They are works in which gestures are evident and brushstroke rhythms appear, how the leaves of the climbing plants that envelop the walls of Carrera del Darro in Granada follow one after the other and accumulate. These —Sica (1997) and Sal [Salt] (1998)— are works inspired by the world of plants, opening up a connection with a nature that is sometimes expressed, although often framed in elements highlighting the strength of the poetry exuded by Soledad Sevilla’s creations: huge paintings made up of leaves that could be the fragment of an endless vine, leaves of different shades and subtle variations evoking the passing of time, the fleetingness of matter, the fragile permanence of things and of life itself. The artist is ultimately fascinated by what is fleeting.
In her own words: “the large format allows me to envelop the viewer and invite them to look at the painting as one looks at an abyss, to question their position in the face of magnitudes surpassing their own scale”. The creative process is painstaking, based on the superimposition of subtle lines that together and harmoniously laid down form a dense web.
In her own words: “the large format allows me to envelop the viewer and invite them to look at the painting as one looks at an abyss, to question their position in the face of magnitudes surpassing their own scale”. The creative process is painstaking, based on the superimposition of subtle lines that together and harmoniously laid down form a dense web.
THE ARTIST:
Soledad Sevilla is one of the most renowned artists on the Spanish contemporary art scene. She was recently awarded the Velázquez Prize for Plastic Arts (2020) and named Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Granada (2020). She received the National Award for Plastic Arts in 1993.
Her work revolves around reflecting on space, light and colour. Her pieces are the result of an inner search among hidden or subdued emotions that leads to paintings and installations of great emotional depth. She finds valuable support in poetry in her creative process, as it is a discipline closely associated with painting. For Soledad Sevilla, “the great struggle is to translate feeling into an object”. By the same token, geometry also occupies a special place in her work.
Photography © Juantxo Egaña ACTIVITIES:
Free guided tours
Every Saturdays
17:30 Basque / 18:30 Spanish Whit prior booking in the gallery, T 943 251939 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
GUIDE OF EXHIBITION:
Descard here the guide of exhibition.
@kubokutxa
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Mi propio paisaje es una exposición que se plantea como una inmersión en el mundo creado por la artista, que entiende la pintura como una postura vital, y que nos presenta su paisaje, ordenado, liviano, puro y franco, basado en una profunda investigación sobre la geometría, el espacio y la luz.
La muestra ha sido concebida específicamente por Soledad Sevilla para la sala Kubo Kutxa, inspirándose en las sugerencias del espacio en la que va a ser instalada. Toma su título del verso de Pessoa «Yo soy mi propio paisaje», y se detiene en cuatro escenarios esenciales de su trayectoria:
1. Nada temas
Soledad Sevilla ha creado para esta exposición la obra instalativa titulada Nada temas, 2023, partiendo del verso tomado del poema de Santa Teresa de Ávila Nada te turbe. Se trata de una creación fugaz, frágil; en esta instalación lleva a la arquitectura su preocupación en torno a la línea y el plano. Delinea la profundidad y el volumen de la estructura que dibuja en el espacio con trazos de luz, que en realidad son simples hilos de algodón instalados de forma rítmica y geométrica atravesando el vacío, tejiendo el aire, creando un ambiente de espiritualidad sublime. Como el título sugiere, el arte tiene la capacidad de revelar verdades místicas.
2. PERMUTACIONES Y VARIACIONES DE UNA TRAMA
La abstracción geométrica más pura, dibujos seriales de los inicios de su carrera, en los que a través del uso repetitivo de la línea crea espacios depurados, ficticios, generando una experiencia emocional de serenidad cuasi mística. Realizados en los años 70 y 80 sobre rollos de papel continuo, creando estas estructuras geométricas infinitas. Algunos de estos trabajos, inéditos en muchos casos, realizados durante su estancia en Boston, se pueden ver en esta exposición.
3. ARQUITECTURAS AGRÍCOLAS
La observación la naturaleza es la fuente de inspiración para las series situadas en la gran sala central.
Arquitecturas agrícolas se inspira en el paisaje de la Vega de Granada y, en concreto, en los secaderos de tabaco que se diseminan en ella. Se trata de construcciones tradicionales rurales, bastante rudimentarias, en las que habitualmente se colgaban las plantas y hojas de tabaco para protegerlas del sol y la lluvia, al tiempo que se facilitaba la ventilación, en su proceso de secado. La artista evoca y reproduce de forma poética esas construcciones en metal, neopreno o papel, materiales maleables, creando juegos de luces, como los que se producen al entrar en estas humildes construcciones.
Retablos. Soledad Sevilla rescata también los secaderos de tabaco, construcciones que lentamente van desapareciendo, de modo que perviven en nuestra memoria. Se inspira en esa arquitectura vernácula, en las maderas destartaladas que permanecen de estas arquitecturas de origen agroindustrial, para sus Retablos, en los que las pinturas recrean el ritmo y las texturas de las tablas, como vallas, que nos invitan a pasearlas deteniéndonos en los detalles. La intervención en sala, formada por Retablo A, Retablo B y Sonata sin futuro, se configura como un retablo moderno, como una instalación, una capilla en la que los cuadros conforman un espacio majestuoso y espiritual, que nos rodea, acoge y sobrecoge. Consigue provocar una experiencia trascendente.
Arpilleras. Ahora se detiene en un elemento más humilde, frágil y efímero como son las arpilleras que recubren estas construcciones aislando y protegiendo las plantas de las inclemencias externas.
Este material está presente en obras como Nuevas lejanías negro, Las lunas oscuras de cristal y Las lunas oscuras de plata y en la serie Silencio. Le interesa de estos tejidos su liviandad, la luz que filtran, el paisaje difuso que ofrecen a su través.
4. MUROS
De la abstracción geométrica más pura, transitamos en sus Muros a la abstracción más lírica, obras en las que confluye lo geométrico y lo orgánico. Son obras en las que el gesto se evidencia y aparece el ritmo de la pincelada, cómo se suceden y acumulan las hojas de las plantas trepadoras que envuelven los muros de la carrera del Darro de Granada. Estas — Sal y Sica— son obras inspiradas en el mundo vegetal, abriendo la conexión con una naturaleza a veces expresa, pero muchas veces enmarcada en elementos que enfatizan la fuerza de la poesía que exhala la creación de Soledad Sevilla: enormes cuadros formados por hojas de diferentes tonalidades que podrían ser el fragmento de una enredadera infinita, hojas de diferentes tonalidades, con variaciones sutiles, que evocan el paso del tiempo, la fugacidad de la materia, la frágil permanencia de las cosas y de la propia vida. A fin de cuentas, a la artista le fascina lo pasajero