Geometry, optics, and kinetics together in the exhibition ‘Antes del Arte – 50 years after’

Sponsored by the office of the vice-principal for Culture and Sports and the General Foundation of the Universitat de València, ‘Antes del Arte – 50 years after’ presents a scientific-artistic view of the art world, or rather of the indifferent general perceptions related to both fields of knowledge. This initiative is carried out by a few plastic artists (Michavila, Sanz, Sempere, Sobrino de Soto, Teixidor and Yturralde) and a few musicians (Marco and Llàcer), operationally influenced by the critic Aguilera Cerni, who presented a gestalt consistent proposal comprehending the disciplines with the formation ‘Antes del Arte’.

The architect Santiago Pastor Vila is the curator of this exhibition. The artistic works reproduce, one century after, the background of the exhibitions in which the viewers have different optical, perceptive and structural experiences when they are in front of the objects and gadgets.

The group’s line of thinking was characterised by geometry in the Art, which resulted interesting in the field of the Perceptive Psychology and whose objective was to promote encounters between the artistic activity and the empirical methods of the science. ‘They undertook works and tests on optical theories which were being discovered and disseminated at that moment, such as the theory of Penrose; they worked with a lecturer in optics, they read with Aguilera Cerni...’ explains José Pedro Martínez, activity director of the collection Martínez Guerricabeitia.

Therefore, a notable level of contextualisation in the European artistic background was achieved, in particular, in Italy. ‘They actually reproduced the artistic trends of what was already happening abroad’, explains Martínez.

The exhibition implied a huge effort of search and compilation of the works, and even of restoration, since they are frequently experimental works made with non-durable materials. The collaboration of the entities and organisms which lent some works such as the IVAM, the MACA of Alacant, The Bancaixa Foundation or the Juan March Foundation, among others, has been essential.

The exhibition is configured in three rooms which allow the viewer to go through the works of the authors from their first creations to the formation of the ‘Antes del Arte’. In the middle of the exhibition the viewer can pass by the origin of this artistic formation. And, as a culmination, they could admire the further authors’ creative activity, sometimes infused with this movement, and sometimes with more linear and even transversal movements.

Firstly, the visitor can contemplate the earlier works of Michavila, Sanz, Sempere, Sobrino, Teixidor and Yturralde, before 1968 and 1969. Secondly, the exhibition talks about the movement ‘Antes del Arte’, about this conception of the artistic creation from an experimental perspective, in which the optics, the geometry and the kinetics take part.

Finally, before leaving the room, the visitors can enjoy the works of the authors once the experimentation with art and its variations has concluded. So that we can see the linear evolution of some authors such as Yturralde as well as the exploration characteristics of other ones such as Sanz, who experimented with mirrors before returning to his habitual trend.

Antes del Arte

Antes del Arte has its origin in a group of artists in Valencia, who knew each otherfrom some meetings at the place of the critic Aguilera Cerni, whose goal was revitalising the geometrical art. This art had already been an interesting art for groups such as Parpalló created in València at the end of 1956. The historical trajectory of this group, with some importance for the path that the contemporary art has followed, was developed between 1968 and 1969, when they made three exhibitions in València, Barcelona and Madrid.

The exhibition, supported by the Santander bank and Heineken, sets the background with the Collection Martínez Guerricabeitia and it offers a free guided visit service and social-educational activities. It will be inaugurated today, on Friday 22nd at 7.30 p.m.

For more information: http://links.uv.es/V5pucsQ