Castillo de La Adrada

EXHIBITION OF PUBLISHED WORK

1 to 26 February 2023

LUÍS SOARES - THE SYMBOLISM OF THE IMAGE

"El arte no sólo tiene a su disposición toda la riqueza de las formas naturales, en sus apariencias infinitamente múltiples y variadas, sino que la imaginación creadora le hace aún capaz de exteriorizarse en intenciones en las que ella misma es una fuente inagotable".

G.W.F. Hegel. Introducción a la estética. Peninsula Editions. 1979

For Hegel aesthetics is the philosophy of art, or what is the same: the science of the artistic beauty. Two centuries later and therefore from a contemporary perspective, we have the work of the multidisciplinary artist Luís Soares (Lourenço Marques, now Maputo; Mozambique. 1952), for whom the search for beauty is the cornerstone of his artistic creations, but not under the concept of traditional and classical beauty, but of inner beauty, the spirit of natural forms and the infinite representations of everyday objects.

Possibly the circumstance of having been born in an African country, where colour, light and landscape are sources of creative inspiration, has created her work, but the influences she has received through her travels in Europe also help to make her work the result of fusing both cultures.

Soares considers himself a self-taught artist, although this is not entirely true, since there is the theory, which for me is erroneous, that if one has not attended a School or Faculty of Fine Arts, it means that one does not have sufficient theoretical knowledge. La realidad indica lo contrario, ya que las enseñanzas también provienen de asistir a talleres de artista o a cursos específicos, tanto teóricos como prácticos. And this is the case of Luis Soares, who is interested in all kinds of creative manifestations: painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, muralism, glass, graphic work, etc.

Luís Soares' artistic activity began very soon, since at the age of 16 he showed his pictorial works in Mozambique, mainly acuarelas, pastels and waxes. In 1974, he held his first important individual exhibition at the Yellow House in Lourenço Marques. In that same year he entered the field of muralism and sculpture - through bronze, aluminium or even, although it seems contradictory, with elements of decay.

Pero no será hasta 1976 que se aproxima al terreno de la cerámica y del grabado, Unos años más tarde, concretamente en 1982, conoce al ceramista catalán Antoni Cumella, que le le mostrará cómo aplica la técnica del gres a sus obras. At this time, Soares already lives in Portugal and travels often throughout Europe, where he exhibits in different countries. La primera exposición en España no se produce hasta 1986, en la Galeria Berruet de Logroño, en que exhibirá sus trabajos de manera regular hasta mediados de los nineties.
Regarding the whole of Luís Soares' work, there is a great interest in combining the idea of primitivism and contemporaneity in each one of his pieces. Movement, colour and form are the basis on which his creations are based. El movimiento, como elemento dinámico, se aprecia tanto en los personajes que aparecen rostros, principalmente-, como de las formas geométricas surgidas de un mundo pleno de simbolismo y cercano al surrealismo; el color se encuentra presente en la mayoría de sus obras, dando mucha importancia a los primarios. This chromatic outburst has its roots in the primitive, i.e. from the African continent, and the form, which is based on showing elements related to geometric abstraction, to Fauvism with a clear Picasso influence and to material informalism evoking Dubuffet.

In summary, the spectator will find in Luís Soares' work, a world full of symbolisms that will allow him to go beyond the simple contemplation of an artistic work. And following the ideas of the German philosopher Hegel, the imagination plays a determining role in our mind, and for that reason we just have to let it flow freely.

Ramon Casalé
Member of the International Association of Art Critics

PDF - Catalogue Castillo de La Adrada