Guadalupe Fernández

It’s an oil on canvas, 180 x 180cm. It’s a sea. I don’t know if it’s the work that represents me the most, but it did come up as a way to get to the painting, a sort of invocation. It was through this painting that I discovered that I was invoking what I wanted to represent. It dates from 1991.

Stand, sit or lay down in front of it, take a moment for stillness (a lack of movement, calm. Serenity) and contemplate.

Painting. Regarding specifically the technique, oil on canvas; that’s what I feel more comfortable with. But all materials with which one can paint interest me equally. It’s very difficult for me to find contemporary references. Cándido López, P. Puerredón, Victorica, Policastro, A. Berni, de la Vega, Macció, E. Stupía, M. Schvartz, D. Pierri, Fermín Eguía, El Búlgaro, L. Maresca, Pablo Suárez, A. Heredia. Remedios Varo, F. Kalho, Tarsila, painters closed to symbolism (specially that of Europe): Gauguin, Munch and W. Blake. Gaudi, Niki de SaintPhalle, Bosch, Rembrandt, Dürer. Of younger generations there’s little that I can tell. Those that come in handy don’t interest me; but I’m sure there must be others, not shown, to whom I don’t yet have access.

Starting by the most recent ones, last year’s El Búlgaro’s exhibition at the Centro Cultural Recoleta. The latest ceramic works by this great artist. There I was able to confirm that it’s possible for an artist to transform the matter (in this case, clay, ceramics) and create a world of his own, a world unknown to us until that very same moment, and showing us his creatures, with their beauty, their lives and miseries. It was a peculiar exhibition, and somehow quickly forgotten. Stupía’s exhibition at Cronopios, where I was able to see, chronologically, all of his work to this day, and thus feel very close to him and his oeuvre. Fermín Eguía’s exhibition at Rubbers. In fact, any of Fermín Eguía’s exhibitions. Marcia Schvartz’s “Norte Negro”, at the Centro Cultural Recoleta M. Harte, at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. Since the first Biennial of Youth Art, I think during the mid 1980s, a contest on Body Art at Paladium, with a large number of contestants and performers walking up and down the stage, in front of a jury. I was overwhelmed with these “new tendencies”, and paintings were all huge and dealing with graffiti art and a language taken from the world of comic books. At the beginning of the 1990s, there were exhibitions that marked me more, such as the first exhibitions done at the Centro Cultural Rojas, with “Lo que el viento se llevó”, by Liliana Maresca. I think it was the beginning of a certain language that aroused back then, very fresh, humouristic and sarcastic. Generally accompanied by performances by Batato Barea, Fernando Noy, Alejandro Urdapilleta and others. It was always full of people and the atmosphere was cheerful, or sort of. Harte-Pombo-Suárez at the Centro Cultural Recoleta: At that exhibition, I felt very close to what I was seeing, with Suárez’s dogs, Pombo’s vast universe and Harte’s nostalgic humour. And the special relation between the three, so clear. What I remember the most about those exhibitions is how fun it was for me to go. I was eager to work, they encourage me to create a world of my own and grab the paintbrushes. All exhibitions by “Los mariscos en tu Calypso”, at Cemento, M.M. Varieté, Centro Cultural Rojas and Garage Argentino. In “No todo lo que brilla es oro”, Centoira art gallery, Liliana Maresca’s objects became mystic, spiritual, revealing a wisdom that was to me, unknown to me back then. The Bolivia Bar.