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Estévez exhibit to open in UB Art Gallery
Carlos Estévez, Pensamiento Numeral, Mixed media on paper, 2005
An exhibition of the work of the esteemed Cuban-born artist Carlos Estévez will open in the UB Art Gallery next week in conjunction with a symposium on campus that will explore the roots of Estévez’s work.
“Carlos Estévez: Images of Thought” will open Nov. 5 in the first-floor gallery in the Center for the Arts with a reception from 5-7 p.m. that will feature a 30-minute introductory talk by Estévez.
The exhibition, which will showcase 31 works by the artist, will run through Feb. 13. It is free and open to the public.
The exhibition is curated by Jorge J.E. Gracia, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Chair in Philosophy and Comparative Literature at UB, and author of “Images of Thought: Philosophical Interpretations of Carlos Estévez’s Art” (2009, SUNY Press).
Gracia also has organized the VIII Samuel P. Capen Symposium, “Thinking with Images,” which will explore how the images Estévez uses affect our understanding of the philosophical issues.
The symposium, to be held from 3-5 p.m. Nov. 6 in 120 Clemens Hall, North Campus, will feature two distinguished speakers: Holly Block, executive director of the Bronx Museum of the Arts, a champion of new artists who is considered one of New York’s most adventurous and creative curators, and cultural historian Charles Burroughs, Elsie B. Smith Professor of Liberal Arts at Case Western Reserve University, whose work focuses on responses to and reactions against the classical tradition in the visual arts and in architecture.
Gracia says the exhibition represents all aspects of the career of Estévez, whose art has attracted substantial attention in Europe, the United States and Latin America, where it is found in major public and private collections.
Estévez’s art forms range from sculpture and installation to oil and acrylic on canvas and paper, drawings on paper, assemblage, collage and combinations of each. He works with traditional materials, but has incorporated non-traditional elements—including bottles, dolls and gadgets he finds in rummage sales and flea markets—into his art.
Many of his later works feature dynamic images of human and animal forms over technical, linear drawings. These figures often reference constellations and the greater space of the cosmos by using lines to connect star-like dots, while at the same time they remain grounded in human space by allusion to marionette puppets.
The pieces in “Images of Thoughts” represent his artistic practice from 1992 to 2009 and illustrate the focus of much of Estévez’s work: the expression, through visual images, of complex philosophical problems and ideas prompted by the human predicament.
“Through them he asks about the source of knowledge, the role of reason and faith in understanding, how we communicate with each other, whether women and men have a common perspective or see the world differently, whether we are free or controlled by forces we cannot avoid, and if our destiny is predetermined,” Gracia says.
“The world of images Estévez creates for us is intended to make us understand the complexity of these questions and to lead us to answers of our own. His art is a laboratory of sorts, an observation platform,” he says.
“The mind behind the work is as fascinated with new discoveries as that of Renaissance and Enlightenment scientists and explorers. This quality accounts in part for the philosophical character of Estévez’s creations. Every piece has a philosophical twist, poses a conceptual puzzle, presents a controversial view, reveals an existential predicament or uncovers an intuition about humans and their predicaments.”
In many ways, his work is child-like in that it has a playful, ingenious character associated with our early lives, Gracia explains.
“But,” he says, “it is also scientific in its clever engineering feats, and it always displays a deep curiosity and insight into the world and humanity. We are asked to look at it and ponder, as children do in a puppet show, fascinated by the possibilities opening before our eyes.
“The modern and archaic, the avant-garde and traditional, the conceptual and formal, and the strong and delightful combine in Estévez’s art to draw the observer into a universe of wonder,” he says. “And, although the art seems to be driven by ideas, it makes no statements. Its inherent ambiguity leads to questions rather than answers, a reason why it eminently serves as an instrument of philosophical reflection.”
The exhibition will be accompanied by Gracia’s book, which presents philosophical interpretations of 18 works by Estévez, corresponding full-color images and an interview with the artist.
It was funded, in part, by the Samuel P. Capen Chair in Philosophy and Comparative Literature.
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