The Eye's Journey: Part Two
Explore 'The Eye's Journey' exhibition as part of the Nasta Collection at the Texo Foundation
By Texo Foundation
Texo Foundation
In December 2017, the Texo Foundation opened its “space for contemporary art” with a show representative of the Nasta collection. The exhibition "The Eye’s Journey" installed in the space recounts the voyage of collector José Daniel Nasta. The show’s title, one of the collector’s turns of phrase, suggests an exploration guided by his subjective vision and the “retinal” nature of most of the works.
The exhibition features solely Paraguayan artists and a few foreigners who have lived and worked in Paraguay. It provides a look at the lesser-known pursuits of well-known artists identified with a particular line of work, as well as works that, for one reason or another, were largely unseen. The present, second part of the exhibit features the following artists: Pedro Di Lascio, Lotte Schulz, Pedro Agüero, Jenaro Pindú, Fernando Grillón, Miguel Heyn, Mónica González, Lucio Aquino, Ofelia Olmedo, Leonor Cecotto and Ángel Yegros.
Pedro Di Lascio (1906-1977)
His extensive body of work is characterized by the freedom with which he tackles a range of motifs, from still lifes, landscapes, and portraits to abstract constructions. With their balanced compositions and careful contrasts, the oil paintings on exhibit here engage color in Cubist and Concretist fashion.
Untitled (Siglo XX) by Pedro Di LascioTexo Foundation
Geometric figures, far from perfection, either accumulate on the plane or dance, scattered freely on an endless white surface.
Lotte Schulz (1925-2016)
Her work selected for this exhibit is remarkable for its delicacy, for the fluidity of its forms, and for the poetry conveyed by its composition and color. A painting suggestive of aquatic beings, its graceful rhythms are reminiscent of Eastern landscapes. In her prints, the artist explores the limits between the abstract and the figurative.
Pedro Agüero (1958-1993)
During his short life, the artist produced a striking body of work that makes obsessive use of certain structures. The structures, first painted, then overtake the frame with all their materiality and might. In the work on exhibit, Agüero goes beyond the two‑dimensionality of painting without foregoing it entirely since the structure is chromatic and makes use of spontaneous brushstrokes.
Jenaro Pindú (1946-1993)
Drawing, engraving and collage are techniques that Pindú used for fantastic figuration of architectures and machines somehow both futuristic and obsolete that —in the work on exhibit— seem to leave the earth behind to head into the clouds, here represented by quick touches of color on the vast image. Pindú worked in drawing, print, and collage to produce a series of dramatic dystopian spaces devoid of the human figure.
Fernando Grillón (1931-2016)
Grillón produced Informalist abstract works as well as fantastic figurative pieces that, as early as the seventies, were rich in humor and satire. The work on exhibit is much later; its delicate forms and rigorous composition shape a scene with metaphysical atmosphere.
Miguel Heyn (1952 – 1987)
The artist was known for hyperrealist figuration with symbolic content. He was able to create dreamlike worlds with everyday elements like a piece of fruit or a cabbage bathed in fantastic light by means of a technique using acrylic paint and airbrush. Like ghostly apparitions or suggestions of other planes of existence, the figures emerge from a space of shadows. The artist made repeated use of the image of the armadillo, using its parts to construct new meanings, new narratives, and new fabulous beings. The exhibit features a drawing that addresses that theme.
Mónica González (1952)
The work by Mónica González (1952) featured in the show is Mujer, pilar, malabarista [Woman, Pillar, Juggler], a seminal work in her production since it led to many others. In fact, it forms part of a larger installation that includes self-supporting structures made from everyday items from rural life in Paraguay (jugs, basins, milk pitchers, and warming pans). The installation was exhibited at the 22nd São Paulo Biennial in 1994, and in other locations in Brazil, as well as in Buenos Aires, Paris, and Ulm Germany. It has been included in many exhibitions and other events in Paraguay that address gender issues. Mónica González produced this work while she was an active participant in El Aleph, a venue of production and debate central to the art scene of the 1990s.
Lucio Aquino (1953-2009)
Dream and fantasy are central to this artist's work. After working intensively in drawing, Aquino delved headlong into painting. The piece on exhibit here is from a period of transition. While the treatment of the space is based on color, the line takes priority and defines the narrative. Magic realism resonates in work always bound to imaginary worlds.
Ofelia Olmedo (1955)
The work by Olmedo is a mixed‑media piece on cardboard that makes use of collage, oil paint, and ink. An early work, it was first shown in 1992 at the opening exhibition of El Aleph. Characters rendered in lines emerge from the blotches on the surface, intertwining to compose scenes in a fantastic narrative
Leonor Cecotto (1920‑1982)
The atypical oil painting entitled Homenaje a las pintoras paraguayas [Tribute to Paraguayan Women Painters] by Cecotto, a printmaker by trade, summons the world of four women dedicated to art in a structure with balanced use of color and form.
Ángel Yegros (1943)
Yegros was a member of Los Novísimos. The work on exhibit was produced in 1969—after the group had disbanded—when the artist was experimenting with writing and drawing on smooth surfaces covered in synthetic paint. It is quite different from his more widely known work in sculpture produced starting in the eighties. This piece is part of a series of ten inspired by writers Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, and others published in the celebrated Planeta magazine.
Photographs: Ana Ayala
Texts: Adriana Almada
Digital curators: Fredi Casco & Stefan Knapps
