Virginia Chihota - Kupinduka

Kupinduka by Virginia Chihota

at the CAAC (Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo), Sevilla.

The CAAC, is a wonderful complex which includes art galleries. You can see the post on it here

The exhibition was staged inside the Chapel of Saint Anne or Columbus Chapel which is in the complex of the old convent.

Chihota trained at the National gallery in Harare and the Harare Polytechnic in Zimbabwe. Her art inhabits a space between reality and dreams, exploring the complexity of human relationships, faith and female identity.

Through a fusion of screenprinting, drawing anf painting, Chihota constructs emotional landscapes where the body - particularly the female form - serves as a starting point for introspective reflections. Her work addresses themes such as marriage, motherhood, grief and resilience, utilising an iconography rich in religious and folkloric symbolism. Her figures, often locked in strange embraces or dissolving into abstraction evoke a vulnerability that coexists with strength.

I understand that 'kupinduka' means 'to change'.

All the paintings had drawings at the back of the canvas

 

Fundacio Joan Miro - The exhibits, 4

Fundacio Joan Miro - The exhibits, 4

As always I am including the introduction from the first post. If you do not want to read it again, scroll down to the first picture.

We really enjoyed the time we spent in this wonderful museum. Even though it's a museum dedicated to the work of Joan Miro, there are a lot of artworks by other artists whose work has similarities with Miro's. An interesting way of presenting art, and one that I enjoyed enormously as it gave me an opportunity to find out about artists I did not know, or to see paintings I love, once again.

Joan Miro i Ferra, 1893-1983, a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist. His work has been interpreted as Surrealism but with a personal style, sometimes also veering into Fauvism and Expressionism. He was interested in the subconscious mind, reflected in his re-creation of the childlike. His difficult-to-classify works also had a manifestation of Catalan pride.  In numerous interviews Miro expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeois society, and declared an 'assassination of painting' in favour of upsetting the visual elements of established painting.

He combined abstract art with Surrealist fantasy. His mature style evolved from the tension between his fanciful, poetic impulse and his vision of the harshness of modern life. He worked extensively in lithography and produced numerous murals, tapestries and sculptures for public spaces.

Though often referred to as a Surrealist, Miro considered his art to be free of any 'ism'. He experimented throughout his career with different media - painting, pastel, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, collage, muralism and tapestry - and unconventional materials as a way of making work that expressed the contemporary moment without relying on realism.

Joan Miro, Hands Flying Off Toward the Constellations, 1974

Joan Miro, Josep Royo, Tapestry of the Fundacio, 1979

Joan Miro, Model of the World Trade Center Tapestry (1974), 1972

Joan Miro, Sobreteixim with Eight Umbrellas, 1973

looking closer

Alexander Calder, Mercury Fountain, 1937

The fountain consists of a static part through which mercury flows, and a mobile part that the same element sets in motion. Calder wanted to pay homage to the people of Almaden, a town where 60% of the world's mercury was then mined, and which had been severely punished by Franco's troops. Given the toxicity of mercury the sculpture is isolated in a space with an independent air conditioning system.

For the 1937 Paris Universal Exhibition, Alexander Calder created Mercury Fountain, for the Spanish Pavilion, designed by the architects josef Lluis Sert and Luis Lacasa. Among other works displayed in the Pavilion were Picasso's Guernica, Miro's The Reaper. 

Joan Miro, Figure, Bird in the Night II, 1972

Joan Miro, Figure, Bird in the Night III, 1972

Dorothea Tanning, Everything is Illusion, Maybe, 1975

Robert Rauschenberg, Untitoled, 1985

Robert Motherwell, Green Label, 1982

Sam Francis, Untitled, 1985

Elke Lagansky - Kosmos

Elke Lagansky - Kosmos, at the Municipal Art Gallery, Athens.

Lagansky calls the act of painting 'her way from darkness to light'.

Lagansky's kosmos, her world, consists of human beings and the way they navigate the world; there is a strong element of decay (particularly in her portraits); the composition of a personal automatic writing and codes; her visual language which balances between the past and the present, the material and the immaterial worlds.

I really enjoyed looking at these paintings, and marvelled at some of the unconventional materials she used. Interestingly, most paintings have no title, we were just given a date and the materials used.

2001, (mixed media)

looking at each painting individually

2001, (acrylic)

2002, (tar)

2002, (tar)

This was my favourite (most likely because of my obssession with Faiyum) and I took so many photos, but could not get one without reflections from the opposite wall. This is the best one I could get.

Premordial Landscape

Premordial Landscape

Premordial Landscape, 2006 (acrylic)

Premordial Landscape, 2006 (acrylic)

(mixed media)

Looking at some of the portraits more closely