Rafael Lafuente H1

the author

his work

last exhibition

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THE AUTHOR

"There was once a man who worked the miracle
Of summing up the whole world in a perfect straight line:
Once there were the bodies of other men
The thick colour of festivities
Faceless ladies in the height of darkness
Thick sackcloth, wood
The mystery with no answer, or blurry dreams

But with the passing of time
Everything was reduced to the volumeless dimension
Of one line
He was a prodigy of slowly working spells
The inclement abolition of the small story
The abandonment
Of the alibi that tries to explain
Inexplicable wonderment.
Now the world is flat and its colour is nitid.
Yet it keeps beating and is not cold
Because an incessant temperature consumes it”

THE ARTIST AND HIS ENVIRONMENT

Throughout his artistic career, Lafuente worked in his studio, away from his surroundings, but not completely isolated from them. He was never one for groups or gangs of friends; his work is done alone, not succumbing to current fashions and passing trends, but always aware of the major vanguardian tendencies.

Geometric abstraction, rationalism, kinetics, minimalism and neo-concretism are the various components of one structure that Lafuente`s work comes back to again and again. This is a man convinced by his art and his operative artistic method. A man intrigued by and concerned about investigating colour and planes, and the investigation of the painting process itself, which does not easily open itself up to scrutiny, yet which obeys its own laws, and is open to all horizons.

Lafuente, more than most, sees his horizon absolutely clearly, and this is perhaps why his artistic development is reminiscent of a slow and progressive spiral. This is not to say that this process of development is easy or worked out in advance. Quite the opposite in fact. There is always the fear of leaping into the void, the feeling of risk that goes with uncertain results.

Throughout this stage, Lafuente does not make use of his palette, concentrating instead on various sized brushes, and sponges. His works are all oils, though they may not seem so. What he is looking to achieve, aptly for someone who has absorbed the works of Eyck and the great Renaissance painters, are paintings of great technical and artisan quality, with a beautiful textural quality. There is a tactile sensuality in his works of art that brings them alive in a splendidly luxuriant way, evoking the seemingly unnecessary and wild luxury that nature blesses us with.

Renaissance painters, are paintings of great technical and artisan quality, with a beautiful textural quality. There is a tactile sensuality in his works of art that brings them alive in a splendidly luxuriant way, evoking the seemingly unnecessary and wild luxury that nature blesses us with.

Lafuente`s use of acrylic gives his work a heightened sensation of form and turgescency. Working with oils is an altogether slower and more premeditated process, using the velatura technique to obtain the exact colour the artist requires. He has also used watercolours and even included the use of new materials in his later works to give free reign to his imagination in his search for new intellectual development.

Countless hours spent in the studio, countless hours spent in contemplation; his eyes twitching with joy and strength. The artist´s trembling hand is resounding when it comes to putting pigment on the canvas, wood, or cardboard that he has prepared for use. Furthermore, Lafuente painted on his studio table, rather than using an easel, and often made use of precise preliminary sketches and outlines.

However, perhaps the most striking feature is that Lafuente adopted this way of painting and of refined forms in an instinctive, independent, and self taught manner. He is like the inscrutable feline that keeps his best ideas to himself. From within his own mind there is an outpouring of rich, mature, deep and weighty work, both rational and instinctive at the same time. It is precisely his ability to reconcile these last two aspects that has contributed to his success as such an important figure in twentieth century Basque Art.

There are few other artists that have managed to combine rational values and geometric forms with the more instinctive and sensorial characteristics of colour as successfully as Lafuente has. His work can therefore be appreciated through not only the eye of the beholder, but also through the intelligent mind.

His work, however, always requires a sequel. One piece cannot be understood without the next one; a variation, a series of works, following an evolutionary and cyclical rhythm. His subtle and almost cold painting seeks to more refined formats in extended and stylized works, interwoven and fitted together, horizontal, diagonal, always expanding and in perspective. In his final stages of creativity his work attains such a high level that it can be seen almost as mystical poetry.