Fortunately, it has been a long time since matters such as identity of art, painting, and artists; don’t come up in the repertory of artistic criticism, in aesthetic thinking. Differential philosophy, and more precisely derridian de-constructivism, have liberated us from that useless debate that had theoretical- critics occupied for decades – if this is art or not, painting or not, etc. Luis Carrera-Maul’s “Horizontal Painting” is a brilliant and sophisticated exercise of the “differential” in art more than the “essence” of painting. And this by itself is interesting enough to write about in these post-contemporary times of differentiated generality. It turns out to be not only brave but heroic to be showing in Oaxaca, Mexico, irreducible center of Mexican Painting – Rufino Tamayo, Rodolfo Nieto, Rodolfo Morales, Francisco Toledo, among others – and in their Museum of Oaxacan Painters (MUPO)
Luis Carrera-Maul is a young and intelligent Mexican artist with European schooling – Barcelona and Berlin. His solid artistic, philosophical and scientific knowledge is proven by his conceptual proposals and artistic practice. He has been a resident artist at “La Curtiduría” Oaxaca, one of the most stimulating centers for thought and artistic creation in Latin America. “Horizontal Painting” is the result of his time there, his thinking upon “the artistic doing” in this post-contemporary time and the need of differential strategies of an artist that is not determined by his origins nor the false demagogy of a presumptuous universal and “global” art. His proposal is neither nostalgic nor provoking. His series are conceptually consistent and visually seductive, well solved and effectively sewed within the show, curated by Olga Margarita Davila.
Luis Carrera-Maul paints without painting in the strict sense of the word. Sometimes it is his pendulum that does the painting, either random or controlled. His work is done by “a-artistic” operations of recycled poetry. Such are, for instance, the pieces made by using magazines or posters and compressing them – there is an excellent piece done with Artforum magazines – the recycling of his past works, “packing” and re-assembling , or his drippings that leave a tray, an intentional mark that overtakes the privileged place of the stroke. His procedures remind us of some very unique contemporary art examples, like the ones used by the Nouveau Réalisme ––César, Arman, Tinguely, Christo, Yves Klein, Hains, Dufrêne––, Fluxus, Rebecca Horn. Others claim on some seminal ideas by Yoko Ono or Marina Abramovic. In conclusion, a very suggestive and vibrant exhibition where one can find lots to see and re-think. Luis Carrera-Maul is a dignified heir to Duchamp as well as Jackson Pollock, as a perfect blend. To paint with the brain is no longer a utopian idea… The miracle : in Oaxaca.
“HORIZONTAL PAINTING”. LUIS CARRERA-MAUL
Pablo J. Rico
Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños (MUPO) Oaxaca, Mexico
2010