Just a short post to mention an exciting book that arrived
today; in 2013 during my first visit to the Venice Biennale I discovered the
work of Columbian born artist, José Antonio Suárez Londoño. The work consisted
of hundreds of tiny drawings/paintings on paper laid out in glass cases in the
centre of the ‘Encyclopaedic Palace’. I fell in love with these quiet,
captivating and imaginative drawings admiring their sometimes referential and
other times surreal-looking or ‘automatic’ subconsciously derived imagery. They
were an inspiration for my own ‘drawing-a-day’ projects
and continue to be motivational for my sketchbooks which I still produce but seldom show. I have often written about the 'need' to draw and mind-set induced by the commitment to drawing regularly. They are personal items
of use, obsession and need so I have never felt that they need to be subject to
the self-conscious inducing scrutiny or rationale of an audience or gallery, however I have shown some and
subsequently am grateful that Londoño’s work has been shown in the public
domain and embraces an outsider art sense of integrity, to be just what they
are (but by all means makes them no less brilliant), drawings in notebooks.
“José Antonio Suárez Londoño revives
the profession of artist as a reflection of his time, his surroundings, his
personal experience and that of the moment in which he lives.”
I have been in search of a book of his work for the last
four years (they are as hard to come by as it is to repeatedly have to type his
name into search engines) and the more I learn about him the more interesting he
becomes [For example, I have just discovered he illustrated a book of poetry by
Patti Smith]. The book is a retrospective catalogue of his works that were
shown in 2015 in Spain Columbia and France. Once I have read the book I will
perhaps post more info on here but for now wanted to introduce to more people
the work of this exciting artist.
"Since the 1970s José
Antonio Suárez Londoño has expressed himself through drawing, in the form of
his prints, his numerous notebooks and rubber stamps. The intense focus and
emphasis on a single medium has allowed the artist to create a coherent body of
work, which has become an undoubted reference point for the new generations of
artists now championing drawing as an essential tool within their artistic
activities. Suárez Londoño’s constant, daily endeavours are revealed through an
oeuvre that represents a type of inventory of the world, a diary that almost obsessively
describes his situation and concerns...an artist for whom drawing is a way to
present the viewer with new micro-universes, encouraging us to construct our
own narrative."
To View an Online Book of Suárez Londoño’s Works Click Here
Images and Text Sourced from: José Antonio Suárez Londoño: Samples, (2015) This Side Up, Madrid.