Is this passage to abstractionism the result of an artistic journey or
is it due to a specific event or a change of perspective?
The
primordial tendency has always been abstraction, it is a way of being and
thinking since birth, like the color of the eyes or any other peculiarity of
our body.
More than abstraction, abstract expressionism is my way of thinking
of art
.
Why? Because when I work my mind is totally free, so that nothing external can
stop the connection with the emotions. When this happens in my body there are
deep feelings, from joyful and pleasant to sad and melancholic, physically I
smile, I cry, I get goosebumps.
While the work grows, expressionism becomes more important, and there, in that
state which is the closest to mind control, I discover what my brain was
hiding. So I try to strengthen this emotion, drawing it and highlighting the
colors, with great caution to avoid damaging the essence.
I always worked like this when I was a child, but, because of my curiosity and
my love for research, I wanted to learn drawing with long strokes, without
lifting the pencil from the paper, as Picasso used to do, to master the
perspective, to dialogue with veils and textures trying to know everything
about the executions of art, especially from the great baroque (Velázquez and
Rembrandt) through the rich impressionist school.
Are these abstract paintings a full novelty or have you experienced this
kind of subject in the past already?
My first
contact with abstract expressionism happened at the age of 6 years when,
fortunately, my teacher told me to make a colorful drawing without giving me
anything to copy. This left my imagination free and I felt like a painter,
since that moment I clearly understood that I was a painter because I could say
what I thought without problems. It was my language, far from mathematics,
literature or any kind of history other than art. Other teachers later on
forced me to copy drawings of all kinds which I realized perfectly, always with
personality, but they missed that magical halo that is inside our brain.
When I was 18, I discovered the work of Spanish informalist painters very
closely in the Spanish Abstract Art Museum in Cuenca.
It was like meeting my
philosophy of life
. I started a series of two hundred extremely material works,
sometimes twenty centimeters of material. My parents' house turned into a
crowded warehouse until they needed to move my works aside to walk through the
rooms. One bad day I decided to destroy them all except "Mummy", this
work contained so many emotions that getting rid of her was like a suicide.
I started then, at 21, a series of paintings on canvas without stretcher,
almost all in large size, 200x200 cm and 200x120 cm. They were expressionist
works, with a certain touch of abstraction. Versions of "The Three
Graces" by Rubens and huge size little men realized with wild strokes, a
kind of Willem de Kooning style but without colors: only black, white and
brown.
When I was 24 I made my first exhibition and I focused on the landscapes and
the aim to sell.
I started a long period of landscape research
, sixteen years.
I wanted to learn how to paint my land (sometimes the closest is the most
authentic): I painted for four or five years around the same theme. I learned
its secrets, which make it recognizable in any culture. It was a challenging
task because it is very difficult to reinterpret the theme of landscape in a
personal way (a lot has already been done), but I succeeded, without making
frills with the flowers or games of style versus other painters.
When I found the secrets of my personality reflected in a landscape, I stopped
painting directly on the field and
locked myself in the workshop to squeeze my mind thinking of that same
landscape.
The premises were the same: to give freedom to my brain and continue the work
in the direction the galleries and the critics allowed me, turning it into a beautiful
landscape, yes, with personality and power.
When I was 40, the rebellion knocked at my door again. I left the landscape and
focused on a completely abstract, three-year series
. It was characterized by
insistence on ascending, trying to climb something unknown: "Ladder to
Heaven", "Ladder and Throne", etc. Here the color returned to
the roots: black, white and red. I abandoned it for reasons of power, "you
will paint what you will have left from others" is what galleries, critics
and collectors used to repeat.
I returned to landscape with a new creative impulse, rich in material and
color, quite formalist and I was again a "good boy", obedient and
respectful of money.
Anyway, I want to say that I created a unique landscape, without compromise,
without owing anything to anyone and always respecting the essence of my
primary condition.
If we analyze the "Walking Paint" series, it looks a little
bit like the meeting point between figurativism and abstractionism (as the
title also suggests) the idea of "Walking", of movement, of change.
Is it a correct interpretation, a necessary step towards abstraction in
general, or is it the arrival point of this path only concerning the landscape?
For sure
it is a moment of transition, of research for another form of manifestation
without the will to totally break with the previous aesthetic.
An important landmark is the decision to do it without sky, which means
abandoning perspective and relying more on composition and diction, too.
Little by little the intentions of reality disappeared thanks to the painting
to walk, not to look at. " Walking Paint" gave me the tools to not
lose my color, which I learned over the years, and to not fall again into
black, white and red.
In some new paintings you changed the format. Is there a reason? Which
is your favourite format for abstract painting?
I feel
better with large formats
. One of the important connotations of abstract
expressionism is the large format.
When "Walking Paint" faded away, my mind asked me to deal with sizes
in the two meters range. I decided to use 180x180 cm and I am very pleased,
it’s like if, in that size, I could capture my emotions better.
I worked on smaller formats too, but, although the result is good, this gives
me anxiety and it’s tremendously difficult to get rid of it.
Is there any difference in technique between the more figurative
landscapes and these abstract ones?
I gave
less importance to fluorescent colors, I only use them on specific details.
I
discovered gold and silver
and I use them as a resource and a means of
communication, they are each time more necessary to me and they rise to be a
vehicle loaded with never ending sources of content. I also
incorporated the
gel
to create small threads of color and transparencies, sometimes very
textured.
Are the realization times of abstract works comparable with figurative
ones?
The
production is very similar, although in the new work the possibility of having
everything falling apart is very big.
When the painting decides not to work, I
have to reject it and start it again
. There are artworks I have to redo more
than five times because they do not give any possibility of partial
adjustments. The artwork has to work from the beginning, trying to recover it
is useless, I can never connect with a past emotion. This causes a very
stressful situation and continuous surveillance, I have to leave the workshop
two days to succeed in disconnecting before falling into surrender, with both
destroyed body and brain.
Is this transition to abstract art definitive or do you still intend to
paint more figurative themes, perhaps keeping two parallel lines?
I can’t
know for sure what my future will be. Now I need to do this work, it’s like a
posthumous legacy of an artist. Time goes by inexorably for everybody. I’ve
seen 70 or 80 years old painters trying to do the same work they used to do
when they were 50, suffering like a factory worker, I won’t be one of them. I
want to adjust my painting to my mental and physical capacity, I believe this
will give me the opportunity to paint and to enjoy painting until the end.
I’ll be free, no matter what I’ll do, I just know I will do.
How do you choose the colors? What do they represent?
Even if
it doesn’t show, I like not to choose the colors. Now I buy packages with
thirty random colors, so I discover things I would never consider. Actually, I
dismiss two or three of those thirty without specific reason.
I need colors to compose the emotional ensemble, their unions and encounters
are very important for me. There must be a magic ticking to avoid eye painful
shock results.
For me the color has no real meaning, I mean, I could paint with a single color
and its tones, and quench my need to express. Although I prefer, since they
exist, to use many to conjugate a rich and vital poetry almost always.
- Ulpiano Carrasco - information and works on the Sist'Art website
- The works of Ulpiano Carrasco available for sale on the Sist'Art shop