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Untitled, 55 x 46 cm |
INVENTORY
OF SYMBOLS
"Truth is not sold, but bestowed
freely Since the Palaeolithic period, Man has used symbols to interpret the world. Within a way of life in which everything revolved round the necessity of obtaining sustenance, art could not be the fruit of leisure, because the absolutely essential elements required for subsistence were not guaranteed. The hidden places and inaccessible corners where those first paintings were situated lead us to imagine that their essential reason for existing was not to be contemplated and that, more important than any aesthetic intention, it could reasonably be supposed that their function had magic characteristics and in that context the artistic representations would form part of a ritual to stimulate hunting expeditions, fecundity or dialogues with other realities. Rafael Amengual's painting has always been populated with symbols, revelations of the invisible face of Nature, capable of bringing to mind sensitive and determinate aspects of this other reality. Within this complex and intangible atmosphere of friction between concrete and apparent realities, where confrontations continually develop, Amengual's creative work extends its roots, capable of establishing harmony between the diverse elements and always prepared to stimulate transcendent links with a hidden reality from the basis of an undeniable apparent sensuality. The symbols we use to manage our existence are not realities, but beliefs. And faith is the foundation upon which all religions are based. Like the witch doctor, who presides a ceremony in which powers and precepts converge, the painter controls processes of sedimentation, stimulates sequences of accumulation and recreates rituals of mystification. And thanks to this indefinable magic, the outlines establish boundaries, the colour favours sensations, the materials crack to provide new qualities, the deposits of material and relief blend together and the intervening spaces are enriched with silt and mysteries. Anarchy and discipline. Instinct and control. Chance and order. Intuition initiates a current in which each action provokes the stimulation and detonation of the next. It corresponds to Reason to introduce reflexive elements and control energies which would lead perhaps to disorder and chaos. In summary, a dialogue in which aspects of indubitable earthly vocation intervene together with keys enveloped with conceptual connotations. Over the years Amengual has developed a symbolic code capable of evoking from the depths of his unconventional vocation: Fautrier, Burri, Dubuffet, Fontana, Tąpies, Wols, also Beuys and of course Miró - distant and legendary figures: enigmas of the night, familiar with numerology, magic and sex, the language of dreams, religious dogmas and so many other realities which cannot be deciphered. The inert comes to life. Distant echoes related to Truth and Life thunder within this fluid and dynamic territory, though at the same time those sounds are fused and confused. Could it be that they have been always in fact a unique and indivisible reality? Joan Carles Gomis
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