“SOME PAINTERS HAVE INTRODUCED EARTH, BURLAP AND WOVEN THREADS INTO THEIR OILS. I INCORPORATED TECHNIQUE INTO THEM: LIGHT, MOVEMENT.”
— EUSEBIO SEMPERE
ABOUT THE WORK
CURVATURA CIRCULAR LOGRADA POR INFLUENCIA DE LA LUZ, EXECUTED BY EUSEBIO SEMPERE IN 1967, ENCAPSULATES WITH REMARKABLE PRECISION THE FOUNDATIONS OF HIS ARTISTIC RESEARCH, IN WHICH LIGHT, RHYTHM AND GEOMETRY ARE INTERWOVEN INTO A RIGOROUSLY MODERN VISUAL LANGUAGE.
THE WORK IS A GOUACHE ON BOARD MEASURING 52 × 52 CM, IN WHICH THE SURFACE IS ORGANISED AS A SQUARE DIVIDED INTO FOUR MODULES. EACH MODULE IS TRAVERSED BY LINEAR PATTERNS WHICH, THROUGH SUBTLE VARIATIONS, CREATE THE ILLUSION OF CONCAVE AND CONVEX SPHERES. THE OPTICAL EFFECT IS ALMOST MUSICAL IN ITS PRECISION: PARALLEL LINES EXPAND AND CONTRACT, PRODUCING VISUAL VIBRATIONS THAT CHANGE ACCORDING TO THE INCIDENCE OF LIGHT AND THE POSITION OF THE VIEWER.
THIS ABILITY TO TRANSFORM STILLNESS INTO PERCEPTUAL MOVEMENT PLACES SEMPERE DIRECTLY WITHIN THE TRADITIONS OF KINETIC ART AND OP ART, WHILE MAINTAINING A DISTINCTLY PERSONAL SENSIBILITY THAT IS MORE POETIC THAN SCIENTIFIC.
THE WORK BELONGS TO A PERIOD OF CONSIDERABLE INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR THE ARTIST. FOLLOWING HIS RETURN FROM PARIS IN THE LATE 1950S, SEMPERE HAD CONSOLIDATED A PERSONAL LANGUAGE THAT ENGAGED WITH EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN GEOMETRIC CURRENTS WHILE MAINTAINING A HIGHLY INDIVIDUAL POETIC CHARACTER.
IT IS THEREFORE SIGNIFICANT THAT THE WORK WAS PRESENTED IN 1968 IN THE EXHIBITION HEDENDAAGSE SPAANSE KUNST: VAN PICASSO TOT GENOVÉS, HELD AT THE MUSEUM BOYMANS-VAN BEUNINGEN IN ROTTERDAM. THE EXHIBITION OFFERED AN OVERVIEW OF SPANISH AVANT-GARDE ART, AND SEMPERE'S PRESENCE UNDERLINED HIS CENTRAL ROLE IN THE RENEWAL OF SPANISH VISUAL CULTURE DURING THIS PERIOD.
HIS CAREER IN SPAIN, CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH GALERÍA JUANA MORDÓ—THE PROVENANCE GALLERY OF THE PRESENT WORK—PLACED HIM AT THE CENTRE OF AN ARTISTIC CIRCLE SEEKING TO RECONCILE CONSTRUCTIVE RIGOUR WITH VISUAL EXPERIMENTATION, BRINGING TOGETHER THE TRADITION OF GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION AND AN EXTRAORDINARILY SUBTLE LYRICAL DIMENSION.
THE WORK ALSO RELATES CLOSELY TO SEMPERE'S CELEBRATED GOUACHES AND SERIGRAPHS OF THE SAME DECADE, IN WHICH LINEAR STRUCTURES UNFOLD LIKE VISUAL SCORES, AS WELL AS TO THE KINETIC SCULPTURES HE DEVELOPED SHORTLY AFTERWARDS, WHERE THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN LIGHT AND FORM WOULD ACQUIRE A SPATIAL DIMENSION.
IN THIS WORK, HOWEVER, ONE CAN PERCEIVE THE INTIMATE TENSION OF GOUACHE ON BOARD, WHERE GEOMETRIC DISCIPLINE COEXISTS WITH THE WARMTH OF PICTORIAL MATTER. ITS TITLE, CURVATURA CIRCULAR LOGRADA POR INFLUENCIA DE LA LUZ—CIRCULAR CURVATURE ACHIEVED THROUGH THE INFLUENCE OF LIGHT—IS NOT MERELY DESCRIPTIVE. IT ENCAPSULATES SEMPERE'S ASPIRATION TO TRANSFORM LIGHT INTO A GENERATIVE PRINCIPLE OF FORM, REVEALING THAT THE WORK IS NOT SIMPLY AN OPTICAL EFFECT BUT A GENUINE VISUAL POETICS.