Nach den Metamorphosen des Körpers auf den Leinwänden der fünfziger und sechziger Jahre und dem zeitgleichen Wandel des Leibs zum Material der Kunst,

stellt sich heute die Frage, was Porträt noch sein kann. Wie legitimiert es sich, wenn es nicht als photographisches Abbild entsteht? Was vermag es zu erreichen, wenn es an eine epochenüberdauernde malerische Tradition anschließt? Salustiano wendet sich dem Bildnis zu, als einmal mehr das Ende der Malerei proklamiert wird. Mit Marlene Dumas oder Elizabeth Peyton ist er einer der wenigen, die zu Beginn der neunziger Jahre die eigene Entwicklung in der Auseinandersetzung mit einem klassischen Genre suchen. Damals rezipieren seine Arbeiten das Vorbild der Renaissance in mehr als der malerischen Technik. Porträts seiner Ehefrau, seiner selbst und einiger enger Vertrauter verschmelzen auf den Leinwänden mit biblischen und mythologischen Sujets.

Hier wandelt sich die Farbe des Bildgrundes erstmals von einem stucco-artig blassen Rot zu der vibrierenden Farbfläche, die als absolute Größe jedes von Salustianos Bildern zum offenen Kunstwerk macht. In Konsequenz lösen sich die Figuren von ihrer Darstellung im strengen Profil und richten den Blick auf das Gegenüber außerhalb der Leinwand. Mit dieser Ausrichtung auf den Betrachter gewinnen die Porträtierten auch ihre Zeitlichkeit zurück. Waren sie in den Bildzyklen der Jahrtausendwende nahezu vollständig der eigenen Epoche entkleidet, beginnt Salustiano mit „¿Me quieres?“ auf Kopfbedeckung und neutrale Stoffbekleidung zu verzichten. Insbesondere die Graphitarbeiten verwenden nun differenzierende Elemente wie Schmuck- und Kleidungsstücke, Haupt- oder Barthaar.

Texto Nadine Engel.

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Changer la vie (Transformar la vida) es el título de la exposición que, desde el pasado marzo, acoge el StadtMuseum de la ciudad alemana de Siegburg.

La muestra recoge una selección de la producción en gran formato que el pintor sevillano, uno de los artistas españoles de mayor proyección internacional, ha elaborado en los últimos años.

Con la intención de transmitir “la idea de que con pasión y amor es posible cambiar la vida hasta que se parezca a aquello que deseamos”, Salustiano propone un recorrido a través de 30 cuadros con imágenes de figuras humanas de cuatro, cinco y hasta siete metros, que permiten al espectador sumergirse en océanos de color rojo.

Comisariada por la doctora en antropología Gundula Caspary, la exposición podrá visitarse hasta el próximo 9 de mayo y viajará posteriormente a Basilea, donde se exhibirá en el Hall-33 coincidiendo con la Feria internacional de arte Art Basel.

El catálogo de la muestra recoge las obras del pintor y un texto de Elena Sacchetti, también doctora en antropología, para quien Changer la vie es “un viaje a través de la noción de arte que subyace en la entera obra de Salustiano: una expresión serena, minuciosa, placentera, libre de connotaciones y de cargas semióticas”.

www.stadtmuseum-online.de

The Gallery Frank Pages will be participating to Art Stage Singapore 2012. For his first appearance Frank Pages will bring the 20o0 Nobel Price for Literature recipient

GAO Xingjian back to Singapore. The Singapore Art Museum had hosted Gao’s first retrospective exhibition in Asia in 2005. In 2007 the SAM hosted a second exhibition “Gao Xingjian in Singapore” , Gao then donated his masterpiece Day and Night to the museum. Also on display major works of british pop-art artist Allen Jones, such as an outstanding large painting which was on display at the Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Art London. Shown for the first time in Asia, Russian painter Igor Oleinikov with large scale paintings, an outstanding oil and pencil portrait on canvas. French Philippe Pasqua will be represented with painting, photography and sculpture. For the first time Frank Pages will be showing spanish painter Salustiano, whose amazing portraits on radiant red background have been very much noticed.

www.artstagesingapore.com

ART in Capitals Gallery presents Spanish artist Salustiano’s first solo exhibition in China from January 14th to April 17th, 2011.

A graduate of the College of Fine Arts of the Universidad de Sevilla, Salustiano’s work has appeared in prestigious art communities throughout the world including New York, Tokyo, and Paris. He now brings his signature red palette to China’s most cosmopolitan city.
The Horatio collection is comprised of three works, all saturated in shades of red that somehow defy symbolism. When questioned about his choice of color, Salustiano simply says that red “is full of contradictions and intentions. Red has the power of going beyond its own color condition. It is more than a color; it is a symbol that provokes feelings of beauty, of absolute, of time absence, and tranquility.” It is this tranquility that shines through the faces of the oft young subjects of this collection. The red clad realism of the spiritually innocent figures struggle to separate themselves from their scarlet backgrounds through the use of taut brushstrokes and a complete lack of context.

Salustiano succeeds in eliminating any reference to time or place in his works, leaving the crimson youth to speak for themselves. This results in paintings that do not remind the viewer of anything, essentially leaving one without any anchor or cognitive framework with which to label them. The remoteness of the visages that seem to float in an endless landscape of burgundy mean that Salustiano’s works simply convey the emotions of those looking at them, never the emotions of the artist himself. The viewer projects his or her own lived experiences onto the painted faces, faces that sometimes portray a severeness, sometimes a remoteness, but always an irony within the lifelike eyes.
All this self-interpretation is not to say, however, that Saulstiano can in any way be categorized as an abstract artist. Instead, for every torso stripped of external meaning, there is a quaint smile that hearkens back to classicism or a pair of cupid bow lips reminiscent of the Renaissance.

www.artincapitals.com

Salustiano thinks so. His works have changed the limits of portrait painting. He approaches the human figure with the rigour of a Renaissance painter, through a detailed study of

form and a clear brush stroke.

Is it possible to find beauty in times of transgression?

However, the characters are decontextualised. They are lone busts and faces over an empty and monochrome space only limited by the canvas itself. Bodies appear like in dreams where everything turns red.

Red: that’s the colour he likes to use in order to reflect in its perfection a deep and complex peace. It would be difficult to guess that his models have been found on the street: “I’m interested in atemporal and serene faces, with a generous expression in the mouth and a transparent gaze. I want it to have the appearance of eternity”.

The work of this artist begins when he photographs the model. Although he usually does not talk much to them, there is always a complicity: “You realise that it’s not just a serene or beautiful face, they are very special people, and curiously many of them are related to music”.

Beauty, academic perfection, minimalist composition… don’t you think it all contributes to some kind of commercial tone which plays down the effectiveness of its message? Why “beauty”, in times when critical art is needed?

Do we really need critical art? I have never believed in this “pamphlet-art”. I think there is a lack of beauty messages in our environment. We are saturated with visual stimuli; artists create shocking images just to attract attention. But in a wall where everybody shouts, sometimes we just want to hear someone who whispers… Exhibitions and art fairs are full of blood and violence. Is it criticising violence? I don’t think so.

The subject, to Spanish-born artist Salustiano is invariably the portrait. Born in 1965, Salustiano chooses his subjects striving for an aesthetic result, but also

the emotion and expression of the glance that creates a connection with the viewer. His work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums.
Salustiano paints using a special pigment – up to sixty layers – from the Cochinilla or Cochineal beetle. This pigment was used by the native peoples of Central America and was brought to Europe by the Spaniards. After gold the exquisite red derived from this insect was the second most prized commodity imported by the Spanish (who later sold it to Navajos and other North American tribes for use in their rugs and textiles).

boloix.com

An encounter with one of Salustiano’s paintings is an encounter with a human version of the late Benoît Mandelbrot’s fractals, a striking experience through

which the viewer will dive into him or herself through the open windows that are those captivating eyes, unveiling one layer of thoughts after the other.

A passer-by in a hurry will wonder what the figure is thinking, what are the reasons behind the feelings expressed by its eyes, trying to determine where he is being invited to go. But if this passer-by takes but just one second to take a closer look, he will realize that he is not looking at ‘someone’, but rather facing a surprisingly red mirror of his or her own soul – past, present and future. Mature and serene, these artworks enable us to take time exploring ourselves, acting as a reminder that what is really important deserves that we dedicate time to it rather than being thunder-struck for a short while before going back to our busy lives – without having really learnt anything from the experience.

A painting by Salustiano is an invitation to a journey through oneself, an exploration of one’s deepest feelings, emotions and ambitions. Apart from the almost-mythological figure of the hermit, or the rare case of the Buddha, human beings are unable to live strictly on their own and by themselves. But at the end of the day, and even though we are deeply influenced by those surrounding us, when facing the necessity to make a choice we realize that we are alone in taking decisions about our own lives.
By often choosing pre-juvenile models, the artist enables himself to depict emotions and feelings at their purest, making us begin the journey by realizing how much life steals away purity and innocence as it unfolds; but also how these are progressively replaced by wisdom and knowledge of self and the world we live in.

Als ich klein war, genügte mir das Sonnenlicht, damit ich alle Dinge klar sah. Die Sonne schien und verbreitete einen Geruch von feuchter Erde und Mohn,

das Licht drang in die dunkelsten Ecken ein, um sie zu erhellen, und hatte einen Schatten für jedes Ding. Alles, was sich unter der Sonne befand, war klar, rein, perfekt.

Ich habe meine ganze Kindheit verbracht, indem ich die Dinge, die mich umgaben, beobachtete. Insbesondere fühlte ich mich von den kleinen Dingen angezogen. Ich erinnere mich ganz deutlich an die Schönheit des kleinen Universums, das ich mit meinem kindischen Blick umfasste, wenn ich mit dem Gesicht nach unten sehr nah an der Erde lag. Das kleine aber sehr üppige Relief einer Erdscholle; das makellose Grün eines Grashalms und sein Schatten; der perfekte Mechanismus der Beine einer fast transparenten Spinne und der perfekte Schatten, der sie begleitete. In jenem Augenblick fühlte ich mich der absolute Herrscher des kleinen Erdestücks, das mich stützte und das ich ansah.

Wenn ich mich mit dem Gesicht nach oben umdrehte, konnte ich sehen, wie die Wolken ihre Form änderten und die kreidigen Linien, die die Flugzeuge auf der Himmel hinterließen. Diese Gelassenheit überkam mich, das ferne Gerassel der Flugzeugmotoren und das Murmeln der Wiese schwankten mich und ich fühlte wie das Leben unter meinem Körper schwärmte; dann machte ich die Augen zu, klebte meine Zunge an den Gaumen und dachte, dass alles möglich war.

Auch heute, wenn die Stadt schläft und das Licht in meinem Studio eingeschaltet ist und ich mit demselben Fleiß male, mit dem ich, als ich klein war, mein Haar glättete, bevor ich in die Schule ging, denke ich noch, dass wir unser Leben ändern können, bis es so wird, wie wir uns wünschen.

Zu dieser späten Nachtstunde genügt mir die Erinnerung an das Sonnenlicht von jenen Zeiten, damit ich alle Dinge klar sehe.

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