Art Lies, Volume 14, Spring 1997 Page: 46
52 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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REVIEWS
Tres Artistas, Tres Visiones
INSTITUTO CULTURAL MEXICANO
BY DIANA LYN ROBERTSThere is a certain quality, in general, that
Mexican painting tends to have in common.
It is part color, part surface, a specific
painterly quality that is unmistakable.
Almost always appealing, this quality is fre-
quently taken for granted and, unfortunate-
ly, is often a disguise for less than inspired
paintings. At its best, however, it can be an
extremely successful aesthetic context from
which individual expressions emerge. Such
is the case with the aptly titled exhibition
"Tres Artistas Tres Visiones - Three Artists
Three Visions" on display at the Mexican
Cultural Institute during March and April.
The exhibition brings together three artists
with different backgrounds, perspectives
and goals. What is interesting about the
exhibition, in addition to the fact that all
three artists are accomplished painters and
that almost all of the works can stand on
their own merits, is that it is primarily
through the formal commonalities that the
individual visions become apparent, more
so than if each artist had been presented
individually.
Nunik Sauret was born, raised, and cur-
rently lives in Mexico. Of the three artists
she could be said, in this respect, to be the
"most Mexican". Her images are ethereal,
with nude female forms emerging from lay-
ers of both abstract forms and colors as
well as somewhat more representational
symbols and spatial contexts. For example,
a symbolic gecko floats above the female
figure in one painting, in another trees
behind the figure suggest a woods. The
color sense is rather subtle, often keyed to
specific themes explored in the individualworks. The emerging, layered images give
the work in general a mystical feel. It is
vaguely reminiscent of the work of Odilon
Redon in some of the color relationships and
the use of spare but potent symbols to con-
vey the somewhat obscure meaning of the
images. Nunik Sauret aims at rediscovering
feminine archetypes, attempts to define and
redefine what it means to be female through
the use of ancient and cross-cultural femi-
nine symbols.
This kind of feminine exploration has been
used increasingly in the last several years, a
kind of feminism that focuses on the indi-
vidual relative, not so much to a specific
male-dominated system as to Woman in
the most symbolic, spiritual and in some
ways abstract sense. It is precisely this
abstraction that needs some qualification.
The symbols so often used in this kind of
"discovery" are just that - symbols. There is
no evidence that in the cultures from which
these symbols are drawn that women, in a
practical sense, were accorded the day-to-
day reverence accorded to their ritual sym-
bols, any more than this kind of feminine
identity search has a practical bearing on
women functioning in the contemporary
world. But there is value in this kind of
search on the personal level, in so much as
it is the process of internalizing these sym-
bols of reverence to form a kind of spiritual
identity that helps to guide one through the
contemporary world, a world where roles
are not specifically or unalterably defined,
and personal identity (male, female, or
whatever the individual's identity is primarily
based on) sometimes gets lost in the ever-shifting context of daily life. There is per-
haps additional value in this method when
it is a Mexican woman artist, in a still pri-
marily male-oriented art scene, defining
herself relative to the specific brand of
machismo still prevalent in Mexico.
Nunik Sauret's paintings explore the
process of finding and reinforcing a femi-
nine identity, and are successful in many
ways. The layered images suggest not only
the mystical nature of the search, but the
ambiguity of the images and their mean-
ings. The paintings have the feel of closing
your eyes and searching for something, but
you're not sure what. Each explores a spe-
cific concept, symbol, or association. The
subtle coloration blends the images, almost
like a collage, to the point that the overall
ethereal nature of the paintings draws the
viewer in while maintaining a certain dis-
tance. The artist is willing to share her
knowledge and experience, but this is a per-
sonal search, and each person must make
their own. Her paintings are her process,
and in them she presents the search and
the internalization of that process, as well as
specific images, and a sense of the mystery
and power she finds in it.
Paul Birbil also explores a search for identi-
ty, but in a very different context. The
imagery is decidedly urban, often dark and
alienating yet with an occasional sense of
solace in the anonymity. Born in Chicago,
Birbil attended Camden School for the Arts
in London and has lived while pursuing
graduate studies in Albuquerque, NM and
Oakland, CA. Since 1986, Birbil has lived
and worked in Mexico City, where he says46 I ARTLIES SPRING 1997
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Lunde, Paige & Meyer, Janet. Art Lies, Volume 14, Spring 1997, periodical, 1997; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth228045/m1/48/: accessed June 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .