SALAS IN THE PLANE
The ways of arts are as steep and narrow as the stair through which we climb to the studio of the painter José Salas; he guides us to the room that reveals the searches of this man born in Havana in the second half of the 20 th century, who graduated in the Academy "San Alejandro". Just after finishing college, he worked for the Cuban Book Institute as a graphic designer. Undoubtedly, José Salas's work is marked by this period; it may be observed in the well-defined shapes of figures, his interests in geometric bodies, and his concerns for the communicative sharpness with regard to the revealing object. Five personal and several collective exhibitions highlight the work of this artist who has also used the possibilities of engraving.
THE NON-STOPPING PLANE: twisting cylinders that wind into endless possibilities, rectangles and curves that alternate and superimpose among lights and shades, turning lines that try to escape from themselves or that in a way suggest marine lines. The persistence of Jose Salas towards geometric figures aims at the obsession for volume. He tried out, with collage and materic painting, what other artists have tried in several ways including installations, surpassing the limits of the plane to express its infinity. Jose Salas moves through the avant-garde art ways with alchemist passion in the search of the philosopher's stone. His search is connected with the one that has encouraged the plastic exercise of man since the old age of Lascaux and Altamira.
CONTRARY TO THE TYRANNY OF THE PLANES. Since very early as student J. S. emerges as a follower of volumes; for him, this category involves the manifestation of the internal live of the object, he knows that under the quiet sea plain, swirling seethes the existence; and he manages to capture the movement that disturbs what is apparent. All of his work offers a continued experimentation against the plane tyranny; therefore, his series at the same time provide a harmonic coherence to the pictorial whole as new variations or phrases in the symphony he composes. Jose Salas' work falls within the inquiring effort of the universal art to learn and show reality beyond the suggestions of space and time.
By Mr. Alberto Ajon León
Sunday, August 23, 1998. An article read in the Dominical Magazine of "Radio Reloj" radio station. 
Salas' "Personal objects" rather seem to be codes, symbols o signs -they also belong to the universal man- constitute the second version of an exhibition under said title, held last year. Nonetheless, Salas intends to introduce us in a sui generis world by using elements, which are very common in painting such as the line and geometrical bodies, and the way of expression that marked last decades such as the pop-art and more recently constructivism, among others. In his work the impeccable, excellently-made art has been gaining ground, and the economy of resources -the essence of a pure rationalism- is the main motif of his work.
Emerged from a vital artistic exercise -now with a high academic level- such as the graphic design, which (I would say) has always played a significant role in his pictorial work: his art works are surely marked by the mentioned influence but with greater comprehensive intentions than the mere and simple illustrative or decorative action. His objects-symbols or codes-objects are adapted in an optical game from the four possible ways the may be seen or understood, each of them providing a different reading in which the use of plane colors and the effect of lights reflected in favor, against or between the depicted object, as well as the balance and symmetry sometimes deliberately fractured, although, he confesses his work "points at the way of order". Therefore, his work achieves that plural dimension, with no possible immobility and with all the richness of a peculiar semiotic.
Salas allows us to transit from this complex world to another where "objects" are perfectly recognizable, not implying triviality or fatuousness. His views of, and for an art philosophy also met here involving psychic remembrances and reminiscence directly associated to his life as a social being or artist. Hence, his fantastic marine world, his cocks and volumes, as indelible impression of another never abandoned practice: sculpture.
Perhaps, this is Salas' most important code, which relies upon the odd sensation of depth -not found in the perspective- and in the perceptible sense of the contained three-dimension, constantly present in his work. This allows us to "enter" in his unique environment, which doors Salas always will have opened for everyone.
Let's get into him and try to decode the system of symbols of his good art; I'm sure, then, this artist would be pleased to talk with us, always surrounded by his PERSONAL OBJECTS, though.
Lic. Antonio Fernández Seoane
October, 1998
SALAS' ASSEMBLIES (selection)
.Such mediate introspection has made me observe the assemblies of the painter and designer Jose Salas, who has found in the different types of wood from the traditional printing an alternative variant with his pictorial expression -geometric abstraction- by assembling and providing them the value of the sculptural volume. Discontinued from its pedestrian practice due to the demand of sophisticated resources, these giant signs -they were made for impression of the front page headlines of newspapers, or verbal messages in large posters- are intervened by the hand of the artist with the purpose of giving them other life, not useful but oversized in their recreation, rescuing them in this way from the deterioration and obscurity in the coffin of the old letter rack .
However, the purpose is not to erase the essence of capital letters and numbers luster and vigor were stamped on the papers of the time: despite the grotesque style, the beauty of the typography belongs to them so as its amazing emphasis. In order to highlight them, the colored spots barely achieve to alter the opulent way.
The wood quality remains and it is just its presence what decided Salas to transfer the assembly characters to the art object category For they were already by themselves.
Mr. Pedro de Oraá
Published in magazín Noticias de arte cubano,
number 7/year July 2, 2001 |
