Gerardo
Rueda: Madrid-Paris-Madrid
Chelsea Art Museum
556 W 22
New York, NY 10011
phone: 212-255-0719
January 21 - March
14, 2004
By AARON
YASSIN
Gerardo
Rueda The Window 1971
Painted wood construction, 63.5 x 47 inches
Collection Jose Luis Rueda
The evolution of the singular
and determined vision of the Spanish master Gerardo Rueda (1926-1996)
is clearly presented in a rare exhibition of his work here in the US
at the Chelsea Art Museum. Rueda is often considered to be the only
Spanish constructivist. This presentation does well in establishing
this relationship, but it also shows a unique connection to Art Informel,
Arte Povera and Minimalism, while at the same time allowing Rueda to
be experienced as a passionate master of subtlety. This survey includes
work beginning in the mid-1950's and continuing through 1996, the year
of his untimely death of a brain hemorrhage.
From the moment the exhibition
begins there is an absolute sense of entering the world of Rueda. Each
work is reduced and controlled to the point where even the frame or
framing device becomes an integral element. Many of the works are either
monochromatic or consist of just a few colors or a few carefully placed
elements. The form of the work includes paintings, painted constructions
on canvas and wood, found object constructions, and sculptures. Within
these works Rueda carefully uses many found objects including: cigarette
and match boxes, a washboard, stretcher bars, blocks of wood, architectural
moldings and even a portion of a worm eaten old wooden structure with
rusted metal handles.
Rueda's greatest gift is
perhaps his ability to understand the abstraction inherent in cubism
and to realize it in terms of volume both literal and implied. In his
hands form is not flattened to the surface of the picture plane. Instead
he sees form as an idea, as something that exists simultaneously with
space and image. This can be clearly understood by first examining the
earlier works and then seeing how he extends and develops these ideas
in later works.
Four well-chosen early paintings
all from the 1950's hung together as a group and presented the foundation
for the formal language of abstraction that would occupy Rueda for the
rest of his life. The earliest work in the group, "Landscape (Carabanchel),"
(1955), reduces the visible word into four rectangular volumetric forms.
Even though this image still retains a quality of illusionistic space
as a result of the use of perspective in combination with a remarkably
sensitive depiction of natural light it is also already characteristically
impenetrable and depopulated exerting its primacy of existence as a
thing in the world over any specific incident that occurs within its
four edges. In an elongated horizontal work from just the following
year, "Untitled," (1956), this idea is developed to the next
stage. Here Rueda presents a combination of perspectival forms merging
seamlessly with the triangular geometry that defines the entire picture.
Barbara Rose, in her catalog essay, clearly articulates this important
aspect of Rueda's project: "Perspective drawing is often reduced
into interpenetrating triangular projections that are intended not to
fool the eye but to stimulate it into recognizing that pictorial space
is an illusion that the artist a priori defines as such without denying
himself the pleasure of playing with it."
In "The Window,"
(1971) Rueda presents six white blocks on a white surface surrounded
by a white frame within a frame. Not only does the visible frame expose
the typical structural support of a canvas it also plays with the idea
that the image of painting is something seen through a window. Although
here ironically all we see is white. In addition, he continues his slight
of hand by turning upside down the furthest left block of the six blocks
in the center of the otherwise bi-laterally symmetrical composition.
It is this simple act that creates all of the tension and results in
an enigmatic object. This work as well as earlier works like "Pink
Painting," (1965) and "Sky Blue Painting," (1966) in
the "Bastidores" series (Bastidores is the Spanish word for
the rectangular wooden supports on which canvas is stretched) are closely
related to the work of Alighiero Boetti, in particular Boetti's stunning
piece "Nothing to See, Nothing to Hide," (1969) and Giulio
Paolini's works from the early 60's, both of whom are associated with
Arte Povera.
Gerardo Rueda Great
Calligraphy 1992
painted wood construction, 51 x 51 inches
Private collection
In later works like "Great
Calligraphy," (1992), Rueda is in complete control of his formal
vocabulary. In this piece we see a shallow large square box with three
horizontal bands. The middle one is two and one half times the height
of the top and bottom, which are the same size. The color of each is
a different rich earth tone. The top, a beautiful yellow ochre, is the
strongest, and the frame itself, a sienna, adds a fourth color darker
than the other three having the effect of holding in the other hues
in perfect balance. This in itself is breathtaking, but there is more.
The bottom of the three bands is comprised of wood like the others,
but it does not fill the space. Below it inserted into the box is another
piece of wood. It is not just any piece of wood, but one that Rueda
has used in the process of making his work to block up other pieces
as they were coated to monochromatic perfection. As a result it has
specks and drips of paint, marks, scratches and other evidence of use.
It is a remarkable inclusion. Rueda places it here and by doing so tells
us that nothing is left out, that every aspect, every act of creating
has its place and is important. But still there is more. The bottom
band of wood above this block is incised by a saw. These thin kerfs
although remarkably casual in their appearance are precise in their
location and create a triangular rhythmic motif that activates the entire
painting and includes two triangular holes that allow access to the
interior of the box construction. This use of the kerf as a drawing
element literally cutting into the piece is stunning and has little
precedent but it can also been seen in the small wood drawings of the
Minimalist Fred Sandback with who's work this piece would complement.
From his early exploration
with a structured cubist vocabulary to his late two-dimensional constructions
and sculptures Rueda always maintains a keen awareness of history that
rejects nostalgia and sentimentality in a style that is severe, classical,
playful, ironic, and without question forward thinking. His body of
work, which speaks with so many connections to European art of the second
half of the twentieth century, feels uniquely fresh, honest and free
of all of the contrived strategies so common in the current state of
artistic creation.
Aaron Yassin
is an artist and writer based in New York
