Chronicle of an instant: dark section (night)

Reinterpretation of the MUSA's Collection

By MUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

Museum of the Arts of the University of Guadalajara

Farabeuf I (1988) by Carmen Bordes PachecoMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

Farabeuf or the chronicle of an instant...

Experiences that disrupt the limits of consciousness; events that mark the memory and modify the focus of our reality; ambiguous characters that go from ecstasy to the agony and the last shines that the light radiates before being engulfed by the darkness are the themes that reflect the works exhibited in the dark section.

Life and death, past and future, balance and chaos are the opposite vertices from where it hangs the main thread that, with the pale reflection of the Moon as a guide, brings together the sensory and psychic agitations that alter the equilibrium of the existence.…

Farabeuf III (1988) by Carmen Bordes PachecoMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

Section: Dark (night)

Nightmares, hallucinations, illnesses, phobias, periods of bitterness and routine moments dominated by tedium...

Hopscotch. Paris Lost Julio Untitled (3) [Hopscotch. Paris Lost Julio] (1984) by Alberto GironellaMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

The series is made up of 22 paintings by an equal number of Mexican painters, in memory of the famous author of the novel Rayuela.

Rayuela meant a literary impact and broke paradigms on how to approach reading, since it can be initiated from anywhere.

Farabeuf I (1988) by Carmen Bordes PachecoMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

Carmen Bordes made the series of engravings presented here. For this creative exercise, the artist read the story several times and met with her Louis Hubert Farabeuf.

Farabeuf II (1988) by Carmen Bordes PachecoMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

The pieces recreate fragments of the story: the doctor’s arrival at the place where he met with his lover ―“Madame Bistouri”― who, at the back of the room, produces a jingle sound when three coins from the I Ching, Chinese method of divination, are thrown.

Farabeuf III (1988) by Carmen Bordes PachecoMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

The reflection of a mirror, the Asian skinning and a loving encounter are masterfully portrayed in these prints.

Self-portrait (1991) by Martha PachecoMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

In the Self-portrait, the artist seems to emerge from the back of a room, surpassing the space to expand and penetrate another, inhabited by a character with an expression of mental alienation.

Exiled from the Empire of Reason by Martha PachecoMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

The charcoal drawing of the MUSA's collection was one of the first works that gave rise to this series that shows disturbing images of human beings who suffer from social abandonment.

Exiled From the Empire of Reason, portrays one of these beings who live abandoned in their own world, accompanied only by a stray dog ​​that appears to be in the same state of helplessness.

Big conscience by Davis BirksMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

More than a face, it looks like the mask of tragedy represented in an exalted image that seeks to convey a mood and not the appearance of the features.

Also, in the monotype, a face imprisoned with dramatic expression, exceeds the lattice that constrains it.

Man in Vigil (1991) by Cornelio GarcíaMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

The silhouette stands out among a set of shadows that do not correspond to the effect of the light of the window, but they fulfill a function at the service of the composition and highlight the illuminated areas.

Altar (1991) by Penélope DownesMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

A piece that is divided as a medieval triptych, with a central square and two side streets, where the apparent protagonists are things, although they show the world of those who own them.

Several pieces of clothing, a pencil, some books, pincers and nails, the tip of a corkscrew, express a message that encloses another, which does not appear, but is suggested in the painting.

Family Memories (1993) by Javier Campos CabelloMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

The piece Family Memories sums up the terror that provokes the memory of something inexpressible. The fleeting sensation that crosses through the memory without the reason being able to register it accurately.

Volatile evocations that find an outlet on the canvas. A man wearing a wedding ring observes with a malevolent expression, food leftovers and utensils gravitate in the space.

Study for an atmosphere (1994) by Javier Campos CabelloMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

The figure of the character is barely glimpsed by the effect of the lit cigarette, giving the environment a tone of intimacy. The color is reduced to a range of blues.

Four small red angles located in each of the corners of the frame suggest the presence of a witness who takes the scene through a photo camera or video camera.

The Bed by León Chávez TeixeiroMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

The contrasts of lights and shadows allow to take a glimpse inside a simple room and a bed without ornaments, which highlights the narrowness of the space.

With the above, the author manages to make the painting a metaphor that speaks of the limitations of its inhabitant, whose anguish is guessed between the untidy sheets.

Study for The Dagger by José ForsMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

From a realism magnified by the camera and reinterpreted through painting, the artist exalts in his paintings the drama of life.

The Dagger (1958) by José ForsMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

In The Dagger a woman appears at the moment of being attacked by a murderer not visible in the scene. Focused from a nosedive take, the protagonist looks at herself with a face possessed by a gesture of terror.

Study for The Dagger by José ForsMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

Fors's work seems to emerge from a dark side that generates anguish and panic. For this reason, the face captures the greatest attention in his work, reflecting the moods more clearly.

Afternoon Sun (1989) by Antonio RamírezMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

The piece Afternoon Sun shows three characters placed on different planes, in two simultaneous scenes separated by areas of color.

The yellow background highlights the moment of the afternoon light and supports the presence of two men representing the street scene of an assault.

Vertigo (1992) by Antonio RamírezMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

Space, time and movement form a triad, inherited from Cubism. This engraving uses the segmentation of the space to express two moments of the fall of an individual.

Anxiety (1993) by Ulises GonzálezMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

In this work the color applied in thick layers is reflected, with some flashes of red, highlighting the fluidity of the drawing on the large surfaces of his canvases.

The partial vision of a face is put infront of the viewer, where the attention is focused on the tense grimace of the lips and the bleeding tip of the pencil that appears between the teeth.

Contortionist (1993) by Ernesto FloresMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

The small pencil drawing shows the fine qualities of the drawing that the artist uses to interpret an exalted vision of reality.

All its anatomy seems to support a contained tension, where only the hands denote a movement, suggested by the repetition of the lines that are reflected as an echo of less intensity.

On the visceral border; landscape (1994) by Davis BirksMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

The painting shows the ghostly figure of a man carrying a suitcase on the stage of a mountainous landscape. Two large heads are seen against the light, there is a river that divides the space.

Underground I (2011/2012) by Alejandro NavaMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

Leaving abstraction aside, the artist used digital technology to show the underworld that lies beneath the city in a literal and metaphorical sense.

Underground II (2011/2012) by Alejandro NavaMUSA Museo de las Artes de la Universidad de Guadalajara

Both pieces were made during the process of the artist's illness that led to his death. The dramatic images are encased in a metal frame that forms a culvert.

Credits: Story

Curator: Laura Ayala

Work: 39 pieces ―collage, drawing, sculpture, print, photography, painting and mixed media―.

Artists: Alberto Gironella, Alejandro Colunga, Alejandro Nava, Alessandra Parachini, Antonio Ramírez, Benito Zamora, Carmen Bordes Pacheco, Cornelio García, Davis Birks, Ernesto Flores, Estela Hussong, Francisco Morales, Gil Garea, Javier Campos Cabello, Jorge Martínez, José Fors, Judith Gutiérrez, León Chávez Teixeiro, Lucía Maya, Manuel Sandoval, Martha Pacheco, Penélope Downes, Roberto Márquez, Roberto Rébora, Santino Escatel, Tomás Coffeen, Ulises González.

Editor online: Melina Torres
Translation: Sayra Rimada

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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