Juan Kancepolski

JUAN KANCEPOLSKI nació en Buenos Aires, Argentina, el 25 de noviembre de 1931. A los once años comenzó sus estudios de dibujo con el discípulo del pintor español Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, José Soriano Torrejón, de quien fue asistente de restauración para la Embajada de España desde esta temprana edad. Dotado de talento natural, ingresó a los trece años en la Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. En 1948 realizó estudios de composición con Juan C. Castagnino. Su relación con los maestros, Juan C. Castagnino, Miguel C. Victorica, Lino E. Spilimbergo, Emilio Pettoruti y Lucio Fontana, maduraron su concepción personal de las formas en el espacio. En Europa ahonda en el conocimiento de los grandes maestros antiguos y contemporáneos. Un complejo dominio técnico es el resultado de su persistente labor en la conquista de un lenguaje singular que lo identifica y distingue. La luz juega un papel preponderante en el juego metafórico de las imágenes de resonancias poéticas y musicales determinadas por múltiples estructuras. Su potente manejo de los contrastes unido a una sutil elaboración de las transparencias, íntimamente entrelazado con su peculiar cromatismo hacen de este maestro un auténtico mago en el manejo de los medios plásticos y expresivos. Las importantes muestras que ha realizado en el exterior le han brindado reconocimiento internacional, habiendo sido invitado por la Société Nationale des Beaux Arts a participar en 2001 en el Salón Internacional realizado en la Sala Le Nôtre del Museo del Louvre. Realiza más de medio centenar de muestras individuales en destacadas salas de Latinoamérica, Estados Unidos y Europa gracias a su prolífica labor. Está representado en importantes colecciones particulares y museos nacionales e internacionales, en España, Francia y Holanda; en Uruguay, y en Brasil, Museo de Arte Moderno Río de Janeiro y Colección A. Bloch; y en EE.UU, Samuel T. Pees Museum, Nueva York, Nueva Jersey, Florida. Su obra ha sido estudiada por destacados críticos e historiadores de arte, en Argentina, Eduardo Baliari, León Benarós, Ángel Bonomini, Romualdo Brughetti, Héctor Cartier, Osiris Chierico, Jorge Feinsilber, Aldo Galli, Mario Gilardoni, César Magrini; Uruguay: Daniel Álvarez, María Rosa Atella, IIdefonso Beceiro, Ángela Cáceres, Elisa Roubud, Eduardo Vernaza; Brasil: Hélio Carneiro, Jesualdo Correia; EE.UU: Gary Wykoff. La pintura de Kancepolski no se detiene en la conformación de un idioma localista. Sus obras, fundamentadas en los amplios espacios de lo universal y permanente, recrean un lenguaje visual que nos aproxima al infinito.

Lujuria de imágenes enigmáticas, transbordantemente matizadas. Poemas musicales que hablan de razón y ensueño, impulso y suave contención. Infinitas alternancias, dialéctica sensorial profusamente elaborada...
El trayecto artístico de Juan Kancepolski es el eterno escurrirse por un sisífico laberinto de espejos. Reflejos de la imponderable inquietud de su mundo interior, que incesantemente se confronta y se manifiesta, a través de un panteón de íconos eidéticos, con la maravillosa y brutalmente absurda realidad del mundo exterior.

Producción estupendamente onírica, sutilmente formal. La perplejidad que ese mundo exterior produjo sobre su universo sensible de artista, ya en sí enriquecido por la presencia de un pensador y un daimón indomables, constituyó una obra hoy cristalizada, sólida, dotada de personalidad y esencia absolutamente propias.

Todo el universo de impactos cognoscibles, propiciados por una memoria ancestral, remota, podría manifestarse de manera desordenada, en una pura construcción artística algo fauvista. Pero en Juan Kancepolski la creación artística respeta la benéfica función de la sabia disciplina interior. Pincelada tras pincelada, descubrimiento tras descubrimiento, visión artística tras visión minimalista, cada mar de percepciones se filtra en gotas de expresión estética. Una obra constelación de enigmas.

En Juan Kancepolski no hay espacio para la inmadurez del hacer artístico, él sabe que la humanidad necesita avanzar rumbo a la expansión de su conciencia ética, si no su registro histórico permanecerá farsa. Él sabe que inspiración artística sin método, sin una ratio estética, es devaneo romántico definitivamente superado. Él sabe que el arte actual, habiendo conquistado su total emancipación, puede y debe retornar, rescatar y restaurar, sin miedo de n’être pas absolument moderne.

Laberintos, espejamientos, infinidad de matices: ludicidad, secuencia de insights, paciencia: plegaria. Hay ciertamente una religiosidad subyacente, que es la de un alma artística que no podría contentarse apenas con el ideal del ego y sus frutos vinculados a la pretensión del éxito.

Plegaria, aquí habla de ejercicios de paciencia y de amor, ciertamente no de torpor místico, o mimetismo religioso.

Las telas de Juan Kancepolski nos invaden seductoramente con su maravilloso juego de facetas, reflejos, profusión temática -y por la sobriedad de la disciplina subyacente. Lo femenino, el eterno femenino atravesando todo, ablandando la obsesión, volatilizando la rigidez de lo mental. Lo femenino en su astuta magia, aquí en forma sonora inmanente, allí por el llamado sensual sí libidinoso, a través de una extasiadamente sabia alternancia cromática.

El artista Juan Kancepolski tiene algo de mago, malgré lui même, y sabe, por conocimiento e impulsión, que el ideal de la genuina obra de arte es el fortificante impacto estético que retira a la conciencia común de su desvalorizado estado mental, transfiriéndolo hacia los planos superiores, y otros, más cercanos al verdadero amor, sin sentimentalismo, y a lo lúdico, sin infantilismos, y a la postura ética, sin hipocresía.

Una obra de arte que en su conjunto se afirma cada vez más, paciente y soberanamente, dejando rastros luminosos, ya sea en Brasil, en Uruguay, en Estados Unidos, en Europa o Israel, y ahora, en una magnífica exposición en suelo patrio.

Interview with Juan Kancepolski
Date –Friday, August 3, 2001
Buenos Aires, Argentina

I met Juan Kancepolski and his wife Fanny Diamant at their home in Buenos Aires on my last afternoon in that city. (…) After I was properly introduced I began to ask a series of questions and I have included the following excerpts from the interview.

Q: How and when did you begin your journey as an artist?

A. Juan: When I was in primary school, I was recognized as a pupil who had special talent. One of my teachers at that time encouraged me to pursue my interest in art. In 1944, when I was twelve years of age there was an international art competition to commemorate the liberation of Paris. This contest was organized in Buenos Aires but the exhibition was eventually held in Paris. At that time the judges on the committee were trying to promote students who were higher up on the social scale. At that time, 1500 children participated in this show, and I had one work on display. From this point, there was another professor who encouraged me to enter the National School of the Arts which was a very prestigious art school. I was 13 when I entered this art school and from there I had to begin to find my own voice as an artist.

Q. What were some of the main artistic influences for you early in your career?

A. Juan: A number of Argentine painters have influenced my work, among them Emilio Pettoruti. There are many movements in art in the first half of the 20th century, most of which contrast the impact of Impressionism. These opposing trends in the 1920’s gave rise to the Avant Garde movement. In the 1940’s you had the influence of Constructiv-ism. Living in Argentina, we were always impacted by the trends in Europe years later, as it took some time for the influences of these mainstream ideas to reach us. In this way the effect of these ideas was not as authentic, but rather an influx of ideas.

Q. After WWII was there again a surge of new ideas in the art world that affected you as an artist?

A. Juan: No, most of these movements had already begun before the war, and the real impact was still Cubism. Futurism was brought to Argentina by Emilio Pettoruti, who is a well-known Argentine artist. Many Argentine artists painted and studied in Europe during this period. In Mexico the visual arts were struggling for their own style which included social issues of the day. This had an impact as well. I have always wanted to develop my own style or voice with regards to including a social political stance, but I have chosen to do it from an aesthetic point of view and there is no political agenda behind it.

Q. How do you see the young artists in Argentina today?

A. Juan: I see a general confusion among many of the young artists. There is a lack of originality in some cases, and there is a lack of faith or hope. It is hard to find original works of art after all that has already been done in the arts. On the one hand, new artists are desperate to find something new to say, and at the same time they do not have the ability to understand what is really happening or evolving in their work. Some of our young artists have been trained by art professors who were not really well trained in the arts themselves.

I see a decline in the art schools from the previous level of pedagogy or artistic point of view.

Q. What do you feel is the cause for the decline in the quality of training for young artists?

A. Juan: The problem is that there are many people now who are interested in the arts in a superficial way. This is due to the fact that the media and the market dictate in terms of what sells in the art market. I believe that art is a profession in which you must study a great deal, and take the time to learn techniques. At the same time you must be independent in your thinking. Art involves history and it is not entertainment. It is a way of having a conscience, and as a language art can replace words as a way to communicate.

Q. On the front of your catalog it states the term plásticas. Could you explain this term?

A. Juan: It translates as expression in a visual way. It is something that cannot be expressed in words. It is something that has been looked at, seen by the artist and captured as a visual image.

Q. How do you feel about the process by which art is selected for exhibitions?

A. Juan: I feel that art cannot be used for public relations purposes. When there are many different tendencies or conflicts of interest, the people who are in the position to set the standards or choose which art will be promoted for exhibitions may have other interests at heart. Often the people in charge of selecting work for an exhibit are arts administrators. They have reached a position in their career that requires more attention to the political and social trends of the day. It is through these channels that the standards are set for what becomes known as art.

Q. Last year, you had work on display at the Louvre in Paris. Could you tell me more about how this came to be?

A. Juan: I have had many shows abroad, both in the US as well as in Latin America. I think that enough people that had seen my work felt that it should be shown there. I am at a point in my career where my work stands on its own. I also feel that each artist should be asking themselves, “What is Art?” and I am always searching for a way to express and develop my own personal language. There are two things that must happen for you as an artist. The first is that you must show your work, and the second is that someone has to see it. The person who sees your work has to have a broad vision of what art is. This is unfortunately the negative aspect of art audiences. It is often the case that the viewer does not really have an understanding of what art is all about. The result is that there are works of art that are revered that actually have no aesthetic or artistic value, as the tendency may be to follow the trends or market demands.

Q. Many artists ask themselves why do they paint or make art. How have you answered this question for yourself?

A. I feel that my paintings and my work express my self. To me life is painting and I communicate through a personal voice or language.(…)

Everything has its exact place in the amazing world of the painting of this artist, temperamental and dreamy, poetic and visionary. Rules or conventions of certain movements, schools or styles do not reduce the size of his height: from formal baroque, kinetic and showing a diversity of values par excellence, his work is able to transcend-and does it very easily- schools, academies and trends, as its art, with good intelligence, we are all caught into. Heir to an ancient tradition that links it to the metaphysical painting and linked to the myths, it shows changing, not blindly clung to a style, but it happens, in comfort and always with the best results, from abstraction to figuration, in particular, in faces that retain the mystery of their origins and development, in an enveloping liturgy, with a lot of sacred and also profoundly human. This legitimate creator shows, moreover, that one can reject the temptations of a very bright color, when the contents of the painting talk equally to the feelings and the intellect. He is neither overly concerned about the problems of light, which is always present in his paintings as a guest of great category. And the intricate, careful and interconnected weft lines of his designs, which cross the surface of the frame in every way possible, very clearly speak of a restless, nervous, passionate temperament, alert to the call of the heart, however small it may seem, which he faithfully takes into his pictures with an impassioned, independent and valid language, reflection of his irrepressible loyalty.

Todo encuentra su exacta cabida en el asombroso mundo de la pintura de este artista, temperamental y soñador, poético y visionario. No reducen la dimensión de su vuelo normas o convenciones de determinados movimientos, escuelas o estilos: desde su superbarroco formal, cinético y multiválido por excelencia, su obra es capaz de trascender –y lo hace muy fácilmente- corrientes, academias y tendencias, pues su arte, con sobrada inteligencia, a todos nos atrapa. Heredero de una antigua tradición que lo vincula a la pintura metafísica y ligada a los mitos, se muestra cambiante, no aferrado ciegamente a un estilo, sino que pasa, con toda comodidad y siempre con los mejores resultados, de la abstracción a la figuración, en particular, en rostros que conservan el misterio de sus orígenes y de su desarrollo, en una liturgia envolvente, con mucho de sagrada y mucho, también, de profundamente humana. Este legítimo creador demuestra, por otra parte, que se pueden rechazar las tentaciones de un color muy encendido, cuando el contenido del cuadro está hablando por igual a los sentimientos y al intelecto. Tampoco lo preocupan demasiado los problemas de la luz, que está siempre presente en sus telas como una invitada de gran categoría. Y la intrincada, cuidadosa e interconectada trama de las líneas de sus diseños, que atraviesan las superficies del bastidor en todos los sentidos posibles, hablan, y muy claramente, de un temperamento inquieto, nervioso y apasionado, alerta frente a los llamados del corazón, por pequeños que éstos puedan parecer, que él lleva fielmente a sus cuadros con un lenguaje encendido, independiente y valedero, reflejo de su incoercible fidelidad.

... En tiempos implacables para con la sensibilidad, tiempos que priorizan la estrategia a las pulsaciones y las pulsiones, el grito de batalla al susurro erótico, las armas a los teoremas, tiempos en que la mirada colectiva sucumbe hipnotizada en masa al constante devenir de un videograph de televisión recorriendo el pie de las imágenes de un lado a otro de la pantalla, recorriendo el mundo para sellar mensajes en la mente del observador incauto. En estos tiempos difíciles como los del poema de Brecht, la obra de Juan Kancepolski adquiere una dimensión insoslayable, oportuna en su riqueza invaluable de una suma de detalles que ofician como salvoconductos para una lectura visual impulsada por la más amplia y absoluta libertad de interpretación por parte del espectador. ... transmite mensajes que ... embriagan con la suave complacencia del "mareo de tierra" luego de un viaje en barco, y que a la vez, desde una cierta apariencia onírica, en realidad despiertan zonas inexploradas de la capacidad de apreciación de los pliegues más intrincados de la percepción. ...

... In times relentless towards sensitivity, times that prioritize strategy to beats and drives, the battle cry to the erotic whisper, weapons to theorems, times when the collective gaze succumbs massively hypnotized to the constant evolution of a television videograph crossing the foot of the images from one side of the screen to the other, traveling the world to seal messages on the unwary observer's mind. In these difficult times, such as Brecht's poem, the work of Juan Kancepolski acquires an unavoidable dimension, suitable in its richness, invaluable of a sum of details officiating as safe-conducts for a visual reading impelled by the widest and most absolute freedom of interpretation on the part of the spectator. ... it transmits messages that... inebriate with the soft indulgence of the "earth sickness" after a trip by ship, and that at the same time, from a certain oneiric appearance, in fact awaken unexplored areas of the capacity of appreciation of the most intricate pleats of our perception. ...

The first visual-plastic claim is reversed to the sonorous-musical when contemplating the large paintings, large in scale and in creative depth, by Juan Kancepolski. That claim leads to a linguistic metaphor for a concept related to the sonorous which states that the plastic work of this artist is a true music for the eyes of the beholder.

The aforementioned "orchestration" also tells of the necessary and sensible organization of the plastic media, culminating in subtle configurations full of essentially rhythmic sense.

Juan Kancepolski knows, and he knows for sure, that the plastic-aesthetic vision calls for a profound mental reflection that penetrates the sensitive, since the term aesthetics refers to the sensory in origin, it is understood, joining the vital lived, embodied, to germinate the same Art.

This sensory-perceptual-mental origin, so magnificently caused in Kancepolski resulting from his fertile imaginative world is met in each work. It is easy to notice when contemplating his expressions which, no doubt, are products of a necessary meditation not alien to any distress since nothing in creative Art, is launched into what is perhaps fortuitous. This precise control highlights that Kancepolski does not support divisions between the sensitive and the intelligible, between the living metaphor and the symbol witness. These divisions as preached by a current nihilism that came to art, happily, is no longer bearing negative fruit for a "wake up" to the perception which is far from any stranger removal.
From the above, the true artist as the present one relies on the experience of the effective, actually discovered by an efficacious enactment. Thus the structuring employment of "contrasts" -oppositions that make up the essence of seeing- together with the "transitions" cohesive in their rhythms and arabesques that generate the suggested movement full of operating life. If we add to this his rigorous articulation of the "dominant" factors highlighted and the "dominant" in view of the tonal effect of values we will know in depth what is beating, for evidence of presence, in his magnificent work.