Sandra Gering

José Ma Yturralde

26 Feb - 17 Apr 2010

© José Ma Yturralde
Horizon, 2010
Acrylic on linen
49 1/4 x 98 1/2 x 3 inches
JOSÉ Ma YTURRALDE: HORIZONS
"Horizons"

February 26 - April 17, 2010

GERING & LóPEZ GALLERY is pleased to present JOSÉ Ma YTURRALDE: Horizons. This is the Spanish artist's second exhibition with the gallery in New York.

This exhibition consists of Yturralde's newest series, which further delves into his exploration of the phenomenology of perception through the discipline of painting. Long concerned with Gestalt theory and the figure/ground relationship, Yturralde introduces distinct lines into his color fields, not unlike the zips of Barnett Newman. These "horizon" lines differ from Newman in that Yturralde has spun them on different axes, altering our spatial understanding of his pictorial expanse. The boundaries of the picture plane are thus grounded around clear and intentional horizon lines, orienting the viewer in Yturralde's often all-consuming voids of beautiful color.

These canvases serve as metarational meditations on a wide range of intellectual and spiritual interests of the artist. Yturralde's work involves an interplay between the immanent and the transcendent; the works appear in front of the viewer as contained canvases and yet they transcend the constraints of the medium to evoke a metaphysical experience of limitless space and light. The Horizon works demonstrate a new phase in Yturralde's study of chromatology, as the more severely striated color fields seem to emit an energy associated with the hues' spectral locations. Constructed with the help of mathematics and physics, these paintings produce an organic sensation that touches on the sacred, as Yturralde melds science and religion to create powerful works that stretch the viewer's understanding of their own perceptual expectations.

Born in 1942 in Cuenca, Spain, José Ma Yturralde currently lives and works in Valencia. Yturralde has been included in many important exhibitions around the world such as the Sao Paulo Biennial (1963) and the Venice Biennial (1978). Other significant exhibitions include a retrospective at IVAM of Valencia in 1999 and group exhibitions at the Museo Nacional Reina Sofía, Madrid; Museum of Modern Art, México; The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Madrid, Spain; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina. His work is found in several important international collections including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; Hastings Foundation, New York; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitória, Brazil; National Museum in Wroclaw, Poland; The Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, Japan; and the State Museum of Novgorod, Russia.

Please join us for an opening reception with the artist on Friday, February 26, 6-8pm
 

Tags: Barnett Newman, José Ma Yturralde