METROPOLIS. An Urban Perspective of Galician Art
“On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the first showing of the film, Metropolis, by Fritz Lang, in the former Odeón cinema, we take a look back at what was certainly a turning point in Vigo’s history, a moment in which the past, present and future came together in this perfect and elegant harmony, known as art deco. A style which somehow managed to seamlessly combine classic and ultramodern design.
Just as art nouveau was going out of style, the Art deco style (the abbreviation of arts décoratifs) was beginning to emerge, with one coinciding with the autumn and the other with the spring of 1910. However, it wasn’t until the “roaring twenties” that this artistic movement really reached its peak, and despite its French name, this art movement managed to conquer the whole world, and in fact, it was on the other side of the Atlantic, in the wealthy North American society that this style really managed to reach great heights.
A symbol of great evocative power, art deco, to this day, is still synonymous with luxury and splendour. This art movement managed to resist the dramatic stock market crash of 1929, the devastating Great Depression which followed, and the long and bloody Second World War, although the postmodernism of the last quarter of the twentieth century essentially stripped it of its elegant and sophisticated languor. This decorative style has been revamped on various occasions, none quite as hyperbolic as the neo-deco movement of the eighties. And this trend has continued to the present, where once again we are witnesses to the revival of a style which will never go out of fashion given that it draws inspiration from classic art forms.
GALICIAN HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
The country as the setting
During the twenties and thirties, Galicia and its people were the subject of the greatest and most emblematic work by some of the main Galician and foreign historical photographers.
These pieces captured the essence of urban and rural Galicia, with their respective economic and social activities. Historical and artistic documents in equal measure, including surviving contemporary copies and prints taken directly from the primitive photo laboratory, all with the artists’ approval.
The majority of the pieces are reduced-size, high-quality artistic photographs which could be sent as postcards or kept as collectors’ items. There are also other larger-scale pieces, considered as authentic works of art, many of which were able to compete with traditional oil-paintings and water-colours for a place in some of the more well-off households.
These scenes offer a romantic vision of life in our country during the interwar period, although not always without a veiled social critique”.
SANTIAGO MONTES. Rara avis
“In danger of extinction, coherence has played an essential part in Montes’ career path. Sacrifice, devotion, suffering, solitude, unawareness, abandonment, deprivation... were just a few of the difficult challenges and unpleasant consequences which he had to face after choosing this difficult path when he found himself at his own crossroads.
This is why congruence today is somewhat of a frightened rara avis flying over our hedonistic and wretched society. It seems that its anachronistic hermit spirit, much like that of the monks in the early years of Christianity, requires absolute silence, the most intense darkness, prior to the breaking forth of glory and the celestial music.
Cohesive energy
The equilibrium breaks away from the chromatic analysis of his paintings, like the harmony of a well-tuned orchestra, in which each instrument plays its own score, with the audience applauding this cohesive work, this symphonic performance.
Fragments orbiting within their gravitational fields, foundations which delimit an infinite space, as if by illusion. And at the same time, these paintings themselves are remnants which are subject to the designs of a wise and just demiurge – in fact, a god, the protector of art and literature, that same god who gave the city its first olive tree, and who enjoys a chryselephantine retreat, shut away in the cella of a sober and imposing Doric temple, with their profile outlined against a radiant sky up there in the heights of the acropolis.
The universe in expansion
Montes may well be more accustomed to the manageability of small-scale canvases and the efficiency of acrylics, yet through the art of introspection, his pieces become somewhat of a border crossing into a universe in expansion, revealing at the same time, these unbridled gestures which occur through meditation.
A reflection prior to this trance in which energy is multiplied and channelled through the paintbrush. This alternation of centripetal and centrifugal forces, seemingly in search of a cosmic equilibrium which goes beyond the bodies’ limits.
Musicality
An inveterate music lover, Montes’ abstractions can be read as if they were authentic chromatic scores. A pictorial harmony which conceals this melody; one which can only be heard if our mind is able to disregard all space-time references.
And perhaps it was this fear of letting go, of witnessing the demolition of all mental constructions, this terrifying perpetuity, that led a critic to glimpse, in the lower edge of his paintings, this blurred memory of the table, this spatial and compositional resource used for the figurative elements of his already classic still-life pieces.
Dual and bipolar
The duality over which Montes’ most recent piece has been constructed generates a certain unsettling feeling for the audience, one which is not easy to escape from. The melancholic stillness which is so characteristic of his work, and which enveloped his hazy still life pieces, alongside his masterful command of aerial perspective which allows even the invisible elements to come to light, has essentially given way to an all-out war, a titanic battle which the artist must face with his own physical and spatial limitations.
A piece which is the setting and battlefield in this struggle for survival, the place where the spectator approaches exactly as a forensic scientist would, to collect the indisputable evidence that will instruct the definitive artistic judgment.
The duality of a dark piece which is tremendously transparent, complex and extremely evident. With each stroke, the edge of this knife which engenders and annihilates, shines through. The screams, the sobs, the cries, the wails and roars, this rattle of death looming over the clamour of battle. The murmurs before the silence. The calm before the storm. The devastated field. Empty. Music. Balance of Power. A game of chess against oneself. Checkmate. The enemy trapped in the back of his head. Checkmate. Murder with hints of suicide.
This duality devoured by an intense bipolarity. Twins becoming transformed into Siamese twins. Inside. Deep inside. Extraction and biopsy. Cannibalism. Destroy to create. Creative destruction. A phoenix. Ash from a cigarette. A piece of work that lives on in us. The proof of life. Only it will talk of us when we are dead. Life as this momentary opportunity to create transcendence.
The importance of colour
The colour in Montes’ work will prove seminal. An extraordinary illustrator, the artist gradually abandons line-work in order to capture this compositional freedom in which colour is the protagonist. Unique and unrepeatable colours, dreamt up by the tireless mind of this painter and from the intimacy of this study where the privileged visitor is able to discover this revelation, the true dimension of this creator.
Because, under this apparent chaos and seemingly uncontrolled explosion, the meticulous and carefully worked out architectural study is concealed, with the sets of checks and balances, the distribution of strengths and pressures exercised by each individual colour. All great constructions aim to live on, to outlive their maker, to strive for immortality”.
Rubén Martínez Alonso
Exhibition curator
