March 9, 2010
The artist Fanny Sanin exhibits in Bogota after ten years, El Tiempo
Fanny Sanín - Forever Abstract
By DIEGO GUERRERA - A good portion of the recent work of this Colombian artist, who has been devoted to painting since graduating from the University of the Andes in 1960, is exhibited in the gallery Alonso Garcés.
After several years, this artist who lives and works New York, is again exhibiting in Colombia with a set of abstract paintings where raw color is carefully orchestrated and constructed in distinctive segments.
At first glance, many tend to speak of Sanin’s work in terms of geometric abstraction; however, Ms. Sanin explains that she prefers to speak of an abstraction of color.
This classification is clearly understood when you see her large acrylic paintings where colors appear in the selective areas as triangles or rectangles.
The matter is even more clearly understandable for the audience when they see one of the two exhibition halls where many series of small works on paper are exhibited. These show the process of serious investigation that Sanin uses to realize the successful conclusion of one of her final works- a large painting.
These are works that change color, one after another, showing the search for the desired composition. “I start with paper-based studies that vary in color, but sometimes the same elements stay,” she says, which confirms that her search is more towards subtlties.
To make a piece of work she can spend three weeks mixing colors and seeking harmony in the composition. Once found, she may stay another three weeks painting the picture, as she does not allow anyone to touch her work. She does not use assistants. She primes, masks-off the surface and paints the painting all herself.
“I start to work the white canvas. I think it’s in a way something similar to the way a musician uses notes. He creates a composition out of existing sounds. That’s how my paintings are. There is no meaning beyond them,” she explains. Her pieces can be similar to a symphony of color that is different as she builds it out of her own palette.
“My works are flat, but not cold. Is not geometric art because color and form work together,” she says. Is clear the amount of planning involved to achieve a composition that will satisfy her. Nothing is done by chance in her studio and each painting is the result of hard work. She recognizes that there is a pleasure in finding the color she is looking for and even applying it, but warns that her work is far from being a game.
In this sense, her search requires meditation and honesty to achieve the correct feeling that each work requires. “People say I have a fun job. I work as anyone, from 9 am to 5 pm, every day. One, of course, knows the language of color, but working hours are spent finding what you want. This is distressing. That’s because, deep down, each work is an expression of oneself. ”
Forever Abstract
Fanny Sanin graduated in 1960 from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota. She traveled to London where she studied printmaking. She began her artistic life as an abstract painter, but free in the sense that in her works you could not clearly recognize geometric figures. She participated in the National Salon of Artists of 1962 (also in 1974) and then moved to Mexico, where she began making a name for herself. Soon after she was invited by Traba to exhibit in Bogota. In Colombia, she has participated in solo and group exhibitions in different cities. She has also exhibit in Caracas, London and the U.S.. She lives and works in New York.
– Translated from Spanish by Alicia Ehni & Michelle Heinz
http://www.eltiempo.com/culturayocio/arte_eltiempo_vivein/ARTICULO-WEB-PLANTILLA_NOTA_