My first interview: Art is commitment and support for life
"Each new technology ends up converting interesting plastic proposals into obsolete"
An approximation to the plastic
legacy of Rubén Rivero Capriles, by
Alvaro Pérez Capiello
A
cloudy afternoon, when the mountain seemed to avoid the stress of a
city in perpetual movement, we initiated an informal conversation
with Rubén Rivero Capriles. Plastic artist and admirer of
abstraction regarding exploratory art that looks for new ways of
expression, in face of the objective reality, he did not hesitate
remembering Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian.
Which
authors and sculptors do you specially admire?
El
Greco was a precursor of modern psychology through his highly complex
themes and characters, defying the moral and religious standards of
his time. Salvador Dalí, through his drawings, yuxtaposed dream
elements without an apparent formal relationship between them,
achieving a beautiful wholeness. Henri Matisse rebelled against the
academic painters who received many awards at the French salons of
his time. I admire Aramndo Reverón, who under the lights of the
tropics made his own an itemization similar to the whiteness and
texture of the snow and ice within the complex vocabulary of the
native eskimo people. Tomás Golding, in turn, offers a happy
treatment of the orange color and a varied pallet of pictorical
themes that make his paintings unrepetitive, even while featuring his
seal
Is
an artist born, or is he made through experience?
All
human beings are born with some artistic potential that is manifested
through experience through unsuspected ways. Experience, however,
also becomes a double edged sword when creation, as I particularly
noticed in my last few drawings, gets repetitive with a greater
frequency.
On
which pictorical movement would you classify your work?
Maybe
fauvism is out of fashion and had its time, but its treatment of
color is central in my proposals. Pointillism, whose postulate of
conveying value on each square inch of cloth, was highly criticized
at its moment; nowadays it constitutes the basis both for my
creations as well as the *.jpg formatted computer files. As a good
contemporary Venezuelan I grew up admiring the creations of the
cinetic masters. It results uncomfortable for me to say that my work,
in pastels and charcoal, are abstract.
How
did you search your own style?
I
started drawing during the boreal autumn of 1992 to comply with an
art requirement imposed by my undergraduate institution, Hamilton
College. I am thankful that the liberal arts scheme comelled me to
take that Drawing 101 course. I started from scratch, with no
previous technique or experience. My professor, Lou Getty, decided
from the very beginning not to impose any particular style on me and
suggested me to look for my own path. It resulted in the only A+
grade I earned during my whole undergraduate career. Later on I took
with her a Sculpture course where one of my works, “The pregnant
man”, was strongly criticized by some classmates due to the
controversial issue at hand. This proves that the role of any artist
is to impress emotions upon the spectator.
Do
you share your plastic work with other activities?
I
share my plastic work with the presidence of a U.S. usiness
specializaed in imports and exports of raw materials and intermediate
goods. I also serve as the sales manager of a company that
distributes in Venezuela various industrial products. I write
bilingual articles weekly on various topics and I am a Spanish,
English and French translator.
Do
you consider that the glleries in Venezuela adequately promote the
artists' work?
The
art market is probably the world's most speculative. It leaves in
diapers the stocks and the foreign exchange markets. It is an
enormous injustice for van Gogh that his works, today, are valued
within tens of millions of dollars, while during his time he was
unable to earn a decent living through their sale. On my part, I have
allocated the sale of my works to the private Odalys Gallery in
Caracas.
Art
vs. Authenticity
After
a needed pause, the interviewed did not hesitate to focus some words
to the personal commitment of any artist.
“Whenever
an artist subordinates his commitment to the current social current,
he or she risks leaving his art on an inferior plane and he or she is
converted into an advertising agent of a given ideology.
After
revising the 19th
century Art History, we find out that there were many artists who,
while trying to perfectly follow the “ism” of the moment, they
were unable to leave their own real legacy. Their commitments, either
by economic or other motives, were in contradiction with
universality.
The
commitment at the ecological level is more difficult to discern.
Although many artists intend to impress our commitment to the
planet's ecology, we certainly use paints, thinner and fixation spray
that are highly toxic and polluting to the environment. However,
current technology has not yet resolved this issue which, to my
understanding, contradicts our ideals of diminishing life destruction
on Earth.
Definitely,
an interconnected humanity will be less prone to keep on inventing
devastating wars and international redtape. One of the main
motivations in my work is to achieve a cultural understanding between
the peoples of the Americas.
Print
interview available on
http://www.eldiariodecaracas.net/pagina%2020.htm
http://www.rroopstr.com
http://www.riverocooper.com