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ESTADOS SUPERPUESTOS 2004

Pilar Gir, (Historian and art critic)

The awareness of language which came to the foreground in the last century, along with neoKantian theories and Nietzsches writings, brought with it a turnaround in linguistic theory. The
single-meaning tendency came into question because of the numerous languages which were
then being spoken, including those which were habitually considered marginal and placing in
the forefront all those which had perhaps previously been shunned because of the hidden
aspect of their intrinsic character.
Its possible to establish a comparison in the method of the development of the discourse,
independent of the language which is used. In this way painting can be interpreted
hermeneutically as an intertextual space where deeper questions than mere beauty can be
posed. Investigating the episteme of painting encouraged Pablo Rey to develop new dialogues
within his pictorial narrative.
Estados Superpuestos is a series which responds to this need for reflection on painting, the act
of painting and the will to represent the spirit of a collective consciousness. For Pablo Rey
painting understood as a means in the search for the form in which to represent art, being that
art is not synonymous with the picture. The graphic quality of painting, what is said and how it
is said, establish a sensitive code for the interpretation of the world. The depiction of this
invisibility of tangible perceptions for the spirit who is capable of tearing back the veil which
shrouds the mystery of life, usually finds common ground in contemporary society.
On a formal level a parallel between Estados Superpuestos and the work of Jonathan Lasker
can be established. The gestural character and the eminently subconscious nature of Laskers
painting become a formal purity, of clear compositions resolving space and line in the classical
equilibrium of geometric dialogues. Pablo Rey conceived this series as a space for reflection,
for intimate dialogue with the painting, but at the same time a search for shared guidelines
which allow it to be read in a multitude of ways.
After a period of breaking through limits, where, from memory, brushstrokes outline spaces
that are not accessible to the canvas, he seems to show the need to again put limits on his
approach. In this sense the series Estados Superpuestos can give a first impression of being a
completely different piece. Instead it lets one discover that one of the paths proposed by this
work of silences held in check is the desire for order.
The boundaries which Pablo Rey brings into question are various. Geometries, generally
closed, which appear in the pictures, tie down and organize the lines which weave the pictorial
tapestry of previous pieces. The result is a series which is interesting for the amount of
information its capable of giving about the artist, as much for his sensitivity as for his working
method.
On the one hand it reaffirms the rationality of a process which is synonymous with the
present, which is to say the immediacy reflected in the premeditated transmission of an act
which ends in emotional spontaneity. The objective nature of the geometry he employs
doesnt leave out the organic character in its subjective quality. In this series he brings to the
foreground, answering questions similar to those that gave rise to Landscapes of New York,

what should be the artists objective in painting. Not only what story to tell but also how to
represent this story without simply relying on aesthetic considerations.
In these pieces forms are synthesized, the clean outline of the narrative seems to be searching
for the truth in art without being contrived. The material integrated in the picture reappears,
almost a contradiction in its own terms or perhaps as an assertion of the dual nature which
governs the principle of things.
In this series many of the themes Pablo Rey has worked on in his drawings become important.
Drawing is a constant element in his work and an important support in which he notes down
ideas that later become developed in his pictures. We should not anyway think of them as
mere sketches, but as drawings which are conceived as works of art in their own right and
indispensible if we wish to get to the roots of his work.
Superimposed states invite one to resolve structures of thought. Spaces where the painting
organizes and constructs itself. The line of the brushstroke takes on a constructive dimension,
almost as if Pablo Rey were dissecting the painting so that all that remains is the skeleton of its
morphology. A skeleton which, in its interior, is still capable of accommodating all the magic of
art.

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