Page 387 - Arte e Historia
P. 387
Art and History
at the Banco popular dominicano visual arts collection
Corripio Foundation (2012) and by the National Arts sionism, focusing on Geo Ripley, Dionis Figueroa, Elsa
Award, which he found out before his death. His paint- Núñez, Ramón Oviedo, Freddy Javier, Antonio Guada-
ings on paper and cloth are depictions of marginal social lupe, Cuquito Peña, Rosa Tavárez, José Miura, Ada Bal-
reality, which combine with imaginary humour, playful, sa- cácer, among others.
tirical and neo-surrealist visions associated with transparent
shapes and ranges of colour; distinct visions that are linked Geo Ripley. (b. 1950). We have already made reference to
to magical realism.
«Sign,» a painting from the 1973-1974 period that relates to
«Untitled,» oil/paper, 35x39 cm., 1989. his abstractionist experience with which emerged as a «Ben-
jamin» in the 1960s, strengthening the linguistic preference
OTHER ABSTRACTIONS/ with new variables, including those linked to his activism
OTHER EXPRESSIONISMS as a supporter of conceptual art, that according to Karin
In the last six decades of the twentieth century, covering Thomas: «Renounces the material realization and instead displays
the years 1939-1999 the history of national visual arts has a ideas and projects in forms of sketches and designs, trying to stimu-
development that we have divided in ten-year artistic genera- late the imaginative.» His goal is to liberate momentum, to
tions, but whose linguistic approaches trace inevitable and focus on the «Sketched construction of a prototypical situation.»
simultaneous mimetic, disruptive, and revisionists parallel. Five untitled works, without dates and egalitarian measures
Until 1939 these parallel were barely visible as a contrast (68x48 cm), and all media/paper may be attached to this ex-
between the traditional precursors artists we call «romantic,» perience, since conceptualism lay bares a solid production.
as Arturo Grullón Julia, and those artists who broke that
tradition, which we consider our early modernists, includ- «Pre-symbol,» oil/canvas, 52x72 cm., 1981, is an abstract and
ing Celeste Woss y Gil, Yoryi Morel, Darío Suro, and Jaime
Colson. conceptual work. Likewise v «Signs,» oil/canvas, 14x20 inch.,
Since 1939, with our modern precursors and a core of
exiled European artists, the modern isms, get expanded: 1984.
impressionism, cubism, expressionism, racial-social real-
ism, abstraction, surrealism, trends which have projection
in constant exhibitions from 1950 henceforth. Isms iden- Dionis Figueroa. (Santo Domingo, 1956). While resid-
tified are not assumed as in Europe, but rather re-codified
based on national issues and individual artistic experienc- ing in New York starts taking painting lessons then (1970),
es. Placing ourselves in the «spiritual art» as abstraction, moves to Puerto Rico where he completes his training in
also in the trend of strong expression or expressionism, visual arts, becoming a drafter, printmaker and painter and
we found the flow of both languages in discourses and conceptual art supporter, position that he sustains in 1980
works preceding the 1970s, citing the artists that combine with an art installation at the League of Arts of San Juan,
abstraction and expressionism based on new conceptual the Puerto Rican capital. Back to formal work, he presents
premises and different conjugations, even assuming the three solo exhibitions in Santo Domingo (1987), Altos de
synthesis or merging of several languages. Chavón (1990) and the Museum of Modern Art (Santo
On the grounds of what has been exposed, and rely- Domingo, 1998), which was a retrospective, displaying sev-
ing on the art collection of Banco Popular Dominicano, eral series: Ports and thresholds among other matters sub-
we address the subject Other Abstractions/Other Expres- mitted to a serene reference of the sea, of water flows in
lyrical abstractionism exhibited in various processes such
as collage and assemblage. Geology, the native island and
ocean reality are actually open doors of creative maturity.
«Cosmogénesis.» (Cosmogonies Series). Acrylic/paper. 70x99
cm., 1987.
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