Commonplaces
dal 17/6/2003 al 12/7/2003
Segnalato da
17/6/2003
Commonplaces
The Blue Gallery, London
Paintings by Victor Pimstein. In the light of the above, the driving force work in the exhibition Commonplaces may be seen as an attempt by Pimstein to 'define my personal landscape, the boundaries of my identity.'
Paintings by Victor Pimstein
I am a non-religious Jew who was born in Chile and
holds a Mexican passport, educated in the U.S., am
married to a Catholic Italian, adopted a child in
Russia, reside in Catalan-speaking Spain, but consider
English to be my main language. I live an acute
struggle to define my identity in relationship to
people and places.
The Directors of the Blue Gallery are pleased to
announce Victor Pimstein's first solo exhibition with
the Blue Gallery and indeed his first outside Spain.
In the light of the above, the driving force work in
the exhibition Commonplaces may be seen as an attempt
by Pimstein to "define my personal landscape, the
boundaries of my identity."
All the different themes dealt with by Pimstein in
this show actually constitute one single subject: that
of the stereotyped landscape. One may ask what the
connection between the serene landscapes of Claude,
the landscape motifs in blue and white ceramics
(Sevre, Delft), the deserts and mountains which serve
as the background to Western films and the images of
idyllic beaches, which we all send on holiday
postcards, might be...
They all share the fact of being visual structures,
which, according to the artist, we all share... [His]
breakthrough is to endow his different themes with
three unifying conditions: first of all that of being
mental landscapes. Secondly of being standardized
landscapes and thirdly that of being idealized
landscapes, whether they originate in high or low
culture.
This is the artifice which transforms the project into
an utterly post-avant-garde one. It stands in
opposition to those experienced landscapes with which
the subject would merge in unison or into which he
would project his emotions as in the romantic idea of
landscape and which still subsists in German
expressionism....Pimstein paints with the same
detachment with which Warhol painted the hammer and
sickle. Just as the father of Pop Art stripped any
ideological component from the revolutionary icon,
[Pimstein] strips his beaches and deserts, forests and
fields bare of any memory, any meteorological
indication and all possible pathos...
Beyond the evident conceptual interest of his
proposal, the spectator is witness also and perhaps
above all to a superb lesson in painting.
From the catalogue essay by Victoria Combalia
A catalogue is available with essays by the painter
and by the curator and critic, Victoria Combalia.
For further information and/or visual material,
please contact Giles Baker-Smith or Philip Godsal
on 020 7490 3833.
The gallery is open
Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 12pm - 4pm
Tube: Farringdon, Barbican
The Blue Gallery
15 Great Sutton Street
London EC1V 0BX
T +44 (0)20 7490 3833
F +44 (0)20 7490 5749