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Maria Jose Aguilar Gutierrez
Maria José Aguilar Gutierrez
Symbolic Realism
Introduction
I have been told that, since I learned to express myself verbally, I have shown a powerful, fervent and unshakeable desire to paint. Perhaps I will never really know why.
I remember my earliest memories, dreaming about having the knowledge and tools necessary to allow me the daily exercise of this most difficult but simultaneously beautiful profession.
Ever embellished given the manifest genius and sensitivity of the human being, always feeling fortunate to have the joy of contemplating, aspiring and embedding myself in the works of others, even feeling myself small and insignificant.
I do not paint because I think that I have something to contribute or to state; I do it simply because it is something I need to do, like breathing.
With all the solitude, failures and sacrifices which it brings, I could not, nor would I want to, stop doing what I do.
I am within it; painting is my air.
My path, the pursuit of a dream: to express what I see with the heart versus the floundering of mere hands which infinitely impoverish the vision. Maria José Aguilar Sevilla, February 2005
Career path
Maria José Aguilar was born in the city of Sevilla in 1964, in the centre’s San Lorenzo district. She spent her childhood and early adolescence among her native city, the bay of Cadiz and the Jaén mountains. From early on she showed artistic leanings and gifts fed by appropriate surroundings. She grew up with a passion for the great Spanish masters, especially Velázquez, Murillo, Zurbarán and Valdés Leal, etc. 1983: - She began her university studies in Sevilla’s School of Fine Arts. - In November she travelled to Italy, where a dream came true for the first time; that of observing up close the work of great Italian masters. 1984: - She decided to commence parallel studies in Sevilla’s Arts and Crafts School, with an eagerness to expand her knowledge in other areas of art. 1988: - She earned her degree in Painting from Universidad Hispalense of Sevilla. - Later she would spend four months travelling in Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Morocco, returning with a determination to continue her tertiary studies. In December she travelled to Vancouver (Canada) for the first time. 1989: - In the spring she visited Holland, specifically the city of Amsterdam, a point of continuous return for her in subsequent years. She felt an undeniable admiration for the meticulousness of the Flemish masters which, together with painting and Sevillian-Barroque sculpture, would set the foundations for her later production. Two artists would leave a lasting impression on her during this first trip: Rembrandt and van Gogh. - In July she passed her oral exams to earn the title of Adjunct Professor for Bachelor’s in Drawing. - That summer, once again in Canada (from Vancouver), she began an extended trip through the Province British Columbia and Alberta, where in addition to admiring the matchless beauty of its panoramas, she had the opportunity to contact small population enclaves belonging to native tribes bearing a significant artistic production, full of content and artisanal tradition. In turn she saw that the wealth of that country had made possible major advances in new technologies, well above those of other countries and which, applied to the scope of art, was imposing a revolution not only in form, but also in artistic concepts. The Canadian artistic vanguard would flow through courses quite different from anything else seen before.
1990: - Her teaching performance, the logical efforts of any doctoral candidate to specify the idea for research in her case focused on the development of artistic creativity, and prevented her from dedicating herself more fully to what she really wanted to do: paint. Her concerns to dominate the part of her held ex officio by painting is primordial. Conscious that only an iron discipline would allow her to attain and achieve this first goal will reaffirm her positioning in realism, making the figure the core subject of her work. 1991: - A household accident destroyed practically all of her works, the fruit of her first steps along her artistic journey. This year, as well as both succeeding years spent among her native Sevilla (putting the finishing details on commemoration of the Fifth Centennial of the Discovery of America), Holland, France and Canada. 1992: - EXPO ´92 - the International Fair in Sevilla is inaugurated. The city is one continuous swarm of cultural exchanges which make her dream of new projects which are not far from her. 1993: - A series of crucial events occurred in her personal life which will result in a major change in the ordering of her priorities and projects, forcing her to forget some irretrievably and to delay others.
Later she had to resign from teaching, but no obstacle managed to separate her from her artistic tasks, the work she remains dedicated to at present.
Symbolic Realism
The minting of this term to define the style of my painting production was due to the fact that the appearance of certain elements in each work is not fortuitous. Quite the contrary, they respond to a prior selection for exercise as mere keys to an internal proper language that lead to deciphering a message which seeks to go beyond amiable aesthetic contemplation.
Thus dry leaves symbolise the inexorable passage of time, the end of all things earthly, the reliable result of a major Baroque influence. This concept is repeated in several works, for example: Premonition (Presentimiento), Reading Old Letters (Leyendo unas cartas viejas) or Musical Solitude (Soledad musicada).
In the wood titled Rose, anecdotally the real name of the model, the petalless rose represents not only femininity and lost innocence, but also responds to a well- known phrase by poet Federico Garcia Lorca, "Youth is a rose that dies." The plant which appears in the right background, popularly known as Adam’s Rib, symbolises the masculine.
Gallery.
Naval Charts (Cartas Marinas), 1991. Oil on wood. 100x81 cm.
Triana, 1992. Oil on wood. 100 x 81 cm.
Secrets (Secretos), 1993. Oil on wood. 100 x 81 cm.
Javier, 1994. Oil on wood. 55 x 46 cm.
Along the Guadalquivir (Por el Guadalquivir), 1996. Oil on wood. 61 x 43 cm.
Time Out (Compás de espera), 1997. Oil on wood. 122 x 85 cm.
November, Laurel and Jasmine (Noviembre, laurel y jazmín), 1998. Oil on wood. 100 x 90 cm.
This work was conceived for the Official Doctors Association of the city of Seville, a commission which I could not complete.
The doctor is always the hope of the patient. This painting represents a tribute to science and to the image of the doctor as the guardian of health.
Reading Old Letters (Leyendo unas cartas viejas), 1999. Oil on wood. 146 x 114 cm.
Recalling the serenity contributed by our contemplation of what has gone on before, from the most personal intimacy, is the essence of this work, inspired by the sonnet of the same name by Portuense poet Jose Luis Tejada Peluffo now deceased, to whose memory it is dedicated.
Leyendo unas cartas viejas. Published by P. A.C. (Sonnet)
Musical Solitude (Soledad musicada), 2000. Oil on wood. 130 x 97 cm. … ”By the immense sea of my soul.“ (Jesus Tejada Romero).
It is not in vain that the size of the neck scroll of this beautiful viola recalls the bowsprits of ancient ships enmeshed in melancholy siren songs.
The perishable existence of chestnut tree leaves appears to contrast with the enduring nature of the music, expressed in the score. The durability of a work of art versus the extinct life of the artist.
(Rosa), 2000. Oil on wood. 180 x 120 cm
The Party (La Fiesta), 2001 Oil on wood. 100 x 81 cm.
The female figure with the foreshortened face covers her back with a Manila shawl, apparel appropriate to festive occasions. Her head is adorned with a Peruvian lily. Given that bullfighters dream about "doing the Américas", where bullfighting fans are widely extended, it is the flower of success. The pendant of golden coins, symbol of the wealth one hopes to achieve, with neither heads nor tails, such as the death which is faced in every bullfight. Two bulls along both sides flank the figure: Talent scratches the Earth while Will, proud with its head raised high, watches the front, both virtues necessary for triumph. In the background a gallery of arches with balustrades above takes us to the bullfighting ring.
On Your Cape (De tu capote) (Unfinished), 2001. Oil on wood. 100 x 81 cm.
Blanca, 2002. Oil on wood. 100 x 81 cm.
, 2002. Oil on wood. 70 x 50 cm.
The Bride (La novia) (study for a later work), 2003. Oil on wood. 100 x 75 cm.
Motherhood (Maternidad), 2003. Oil on wood. 100 x 75 cm.
My Thoughts I (Pensamientos míos I), 2004. Oil on wood. 70 x 60 cm.
My Thoughts II (Pensamientos míos II), 2004. Oil on wood. 70 x 50 cm.
Remembering Granada (Recordando Granada), 2006. Oil on wood. 180 x 120 cm.
José Luis, 2005. Oil on wood. 100 x 81 cm.
My studio.
Studio in Sevilla
Comments.
Maria Pepa Parejo Delgado. Professor of Art History
Press.
Exhibits.
Group Exhibits: 1998: - Galería Haurie (Sevilla). - Galería Pablo Picasso (Malaga). 1999: - Arte Sevilla 99 Contemporary Art Fair. 2000: -Arte Sevilla 2000 Contemporary Art Fair Art. -MAC 21 Marbella (Malaga). 2001: - Arte Sevilla 2001 Contemporary Art Fair. 2002: - Arte Sevilla 2002 Contemporary Art Fair. 2003: - Arte Sevilla 2003 Contemporary Art Fair. - Velázquez Room, Ateneo de Sevilla (Athenaeum Art Museum). - Galería Expo Arte de Madrid. 2004: - Arte Sevilla 2004 Contemporary Art Fair. - Patio de los Naranjos, Iglesia del Salvador (Sevilla). 2005: - Velázquez Room, Ateneo de Sevilla (Athenaeum Art Museum). 2006: - Velázquez Room, Ateneo de Sevilla (Athenaeum Art Museum).
Contact.
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