ABOUT
Looking at the paintings of Guillermo Fornes I reminded the studies of the famous researcher Joseph Campbell who in his book
"The masks of God” said: “the symbols involve much more than a mere intellectual concept because their inner characteristic is such that they provide a meaning of real contribution to the perception of the transcendental. The symbol, energized by the metaphor, gives us not only an idea of the infinite but a certain fulfillment of the infinite".Nourished with the remarks of this specialist on ancient mythologies I learnt how to introduce myself in the work of Fornes, since settling myself to contemplate his work means not only to enjoy the aesthetic pleasure but also and especially to connect with a personal internal process much more committed and full of significance.
And, why is this happening ? A thoughtfull look at Fornes work reveals to us that the reality is not what we see but what we discover…
Faced to his paintings one could say like Octavio Paz said:
“we hear with our mind silent words said in an unknown language but precisely understood, without understanding really how we got it”
Guillermo Fornes speaks about “visual poems” but they are much more than that, they are strong emotional blows expressed in pure and accurate brushstrokes.
His aesthetic approach has the capacity of seeing with his interior eyes, perceiving the essence of things and translating them to archetypical signs and symbols.
His aesthetic attitude means a courage not very frequent and sometimes rash: in his inside search Fornes shares with us his most intimate findings making us to participate in all his feelings and thoughts.
With his “visual poems” Fornes is helping us to understand the apparent paradox of the opposites. He denounces the simple way of thinking in a strictly binary sense. The good or the bad, the white or the black, the diurnal or the nocturnal, would only have meaning in a universe which would exclude the deepest experiences, while these are the ones which may be seen in his works synthesizing those contradictions in a unique and whole mind.
In the Fornes visual language there is not anymore the one “or” the other, but the one “and” the other. .
And here it is necessary to remark the last element which we consider to be basic in the fertile production of this artist since more than twenty years: The emotion as the instrument of his hermeneutics.
The emotion, acting as an effective tool, becomes the empathetic bridge between his look and our look, because it is not only our mind´s eye which is decoding his message, but it is our body that is experiencing the emotional blow as a way of knowledge.
The emotion in Guillermo Fornes paintings is always near to overflowing, adding new information about himself and about the whole world…
The art, as a last resort, is the mankind´s big binnacle.
Benjamín von der Becke
Madrid, October 2013.
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