Since 1997 Juan Uslé has been working on a series of works known as his ‘black paintings,’ which takes a central position in his oeuvre. In the fifty paintings that make up the series Soñé que revelabas, most of them done at night, Usle carries out a highly concentrated and meditative disquisition on the structural conditions of painting and the painting process. Every brush mark on these works is charged in two different ways: On the one hand, they depict the painterly gesture and thus classify themselves as part of the tradition of self-reflective abstract painting. On the other hand, every brush mark can be regarded as the painter’s heartbeat, which turns the works into manifestations of the painter’s direct and ‘sensual’ bodily connection with his paintings.
This combination of a subjective and poetic painting aura as well as the conceptual introspection of the medium which defines all of the artist’s works make Uslé’s oeuvre one of the greatest of our time. This is all the more pertinent as Uslé has been living and working in New York and Spain for a long time and the combination of a catholic-baroque picture emphasis and intellectual detachment connect the European and American painting tradition.
This exhibition was organised by Kunstmuseum Bonn in collaboration with CGAC, and is supported by AC/E. After its presentation in Germany, Juan Uslé. Dark Light will be shown at CGAC in July 2014. An exhibition catalogue featuring essays by Ángel González, Raphael Rubinstein and Stephan Berg will be published in conjunction with the show.
With the generous support of:
