silence in prague

RICARDO MAZAL

SILENCE IN PRAGUE

SILENCE IN PRAGUE PH 1, 2019pigment ink print, 12 x 13 in. / 30 x 32 cm

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RICARDO MAZALSILENCE IN PRAGUE

196-198 Davenport Road I Toronto ON M5R 1J2 Canada I 416.962.0438odonwagnergallery.com

RICARDO MAZAL I SILENCE IN PRAGUE

Conjuring the paintings of Ricardo Mazal in my mind’s eye, their pealing texture absorbs my attention, especially the rivulets of thick, hard-edged impasto, placed in succession as they rise and fall in irregular rhythms across his canvas. In my quest of trying to explain Mazal’s technique, I often found myself lost in analogies to the tangible, relating them to woven textiles, loose threads of paint warping and wafting in perpetuity. However long I sat on this and other interpretations, they didn’t read as complete. Speaking with Mazal from his studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico, only a few hundred miles from his native Mexico, the soft spoken and, more often than not, poetic artist enlightened me.

Our discussion started with his beginnings, his formative decision to become an artist. Mazal’s moment came later in life. At 36, he left behind a successful career as an Industrial designer in Mexico City for the unknown. Finding himself in Barcelona in the late 80s, Mazal had his chance to pursue painting with wild abandon. Seven years of rigorous study and labour found Mazal, the artist, emerged from his artistic gestation. Inquiring about these initial founts of inspiration, Mazal listed a wide array of artists from George Baselitz, to the Italian Transavanguardia, to Abstract Expressionists, to Cy Twombly. It would be Twombly, whose approach to art making, insistent on the gestural line’s ability to represent cultural memory, never fit neatly into an art historical category, who most spoke to Mazal. Twombly’s resistance to the return to figuration, heralded by Pop Art, mirrors Mazal’s own resistance to being categorized. He says, “I have never defined my work as abstract and that’s because to me reality and abstraction are part of a continuum”. To traverse this continuum in paint, Mazal’s practice required a non-visual space and source of inspiration. He says:

“It happened in the first few years, I discovered that music was the space that I would be looking at, conceptually speaking, to guide my work. In particular, Estonian composer, Arvo Pärt. I began paintings by closing my eyes, listening to the music and then going to the canvas. Music has been as much an important influence in my work as other artists.”

I discovered Pärt’s Symphony No. 4, written just over a decade earlier. I was startled by what I heard. It felt oddly familiar. The slow, soft opening of Pärt’s first movement forms a velvety mist, where moments of silence are strangely, but effectively, punctuated by the peal of a cymbal or the anxious plucking of strings. This rhythmic lushness, played out with equal parts mysticism and technical rigor, appears in Mazal’s painting White over Violet. The violet undertones raised and undulating as they descend from the top to the bottom of the canvas are softened by a light white wash. The way Mazal’s repeated blocks of colour appear at irregular intervals suggests that the work continues to thrive off the canvas. We are meant to see and feel more than that contained between the stretcher bars. This relationship to music finds its forebears in early 20th century German expressionist, Wassily Kandinsky. Obsessed with music’s ability to transcend the natural, tangible world, Kandinsky’s most expressive works, like Composition VII, 1913, capture much more than one idea. In the artist’s own words “each picture is a whole lifetime imprisoned, a whole lifetime of fears, doubts, hopes, and joys.”

By Meghan O’Callaghan

2 SILENCE IN PRAGUE PH 9, 2019pigment ink print, 12 x 13 in. / 30 x 32 cm

Is this not the all-encompassing “space” to which Mazal refers, one that can be shared by both music and painting? In this frame of mind, Mazal’s work is not two dimensional but, rather, he wants to fully envelop the viewer, offering a total experience. Standing before Silence in Prague, Mazal’s newest body of work, we are transported to a medieval, Jewish cemetery in Prague’s Old Town.The internationally known sanctuary is one of the oldest, undisturbed Jewish burial sites in the world, with its final interment in the 1700s.

As the title ambiguously offers, are we meant to listen in silence? Among Pärt’s rippling bells, we find ourselves in one of the symphony’s pockets of stillness. Mazal shows us the power of angles, triangles, obtuse and acute, fighting for space and attention, as they crowd and overlap one another throughout his compositions. This layered tension is informed by the cemetery itself, the struggle for space, a constant theme in Jewish history, is realized by the overrun and forlorn tombstones. As the cemetery became full, layers of earth were added. Back at his studio, Mazal became fixated over his memories of the cemetery, returning over and over again to his iPhone photos. Deciding to go back to Prague, he wanted his camera to capture the essence of this place. In doing so, he describes “getting very close” to the tombstones, “pursuing angles that didn’t have trees or grass” or references to the natural world. As Mazal describes it this project was very much “about the forms and the angles, the colours and the history.”

The colour guiding this history is black. In SP Black 18, black is not merely the unperturbed silence of the graveyard, but rather the ripples and echoes, leaving a visual imprint of the music and life that just passed before us. Mazal achieves this textural subtlety with his signature technique of cutting his paint brushes, allowing for an expert and controlled manipulation of the paint. At times the gauges in his brush leave obvious levels of raised paint, yet here in SP Black 18, these varied lulls of black are so minute they could go unnoticed. To appreciate this texture, we must come just as closely as Mazal did with his camera. This work, a staggering ten feet wide, is divided by the shimmering black of two rhombuses intersecting one another. While

his black drops to a gentle hum, a crescendo of coloured triangles, hewn birchwood, grand canyon red, muted ashy brown, and a rich blue teal contrast against the textured white, which shimmers between a stark lead white and a shadowy grey. The strict edges of the geometric shapes form a dynamic contrast with the ethereal dance your eye follows among the layers of colour and texture contained within it.

This contrast between the defined angles and the pulse of life and colour requires the viewer to imagine a field of thrumming electrons contained within each angled shape. It is a fitting expression of Mazal’s spiritual experience in Prague, that of the juxtaposition of confronting death from the beauty and perspective of being alive. This confrontation runs throughout Mazal’s mature body of work. He says he never seeks out burial grounds; rather they chance upon him. This serendipity does not alter the fact that they remain a constant focal point for him. Beginning in the early 2000s, the artist travelled to Palenque, Mexico, to visit the Red Tomb of a thousand-year-old queen; then to Odenwald, Germany, where interments happen beneath the trees in an idyllic forest; and, finally, to Tibet, where sky burials are conducted on the sacred Mount Kailash. Asked about this theme in his work, Mazal recounts “I just completed the red queen and then here I was doing another cemetery in Odenwald, and I saw the children playing and the couples walking [in the forest], this is not about death. This is really about life and how it changes your view of death from life.”

Sitting among his paintings, a certain harmony occurs, and once again I hear the shimmering strings, bells and percussions of Pärt’s symphony. This created space is the goal of Mazal’s practice. He tells me that “the success of my exhibitions depends on what feedback I get. Usually I don’t care if the viewers talk about my paintings, but, for instance, if they talk about the experience of being buried underneath a tree, and that the space has made them reflect about their own life, then I think I have been successful.” Emerging from Mazal’s memories, you realize the experience you are being afforded by his work, namely, your own space for spiritual reflection.

3WHITE OVER VIOLET 5 I oil on linen, 87 x 100 in. / 220 x 254 cm

4SP BLACK 18 I oil on linen, 77 x 113 in. / 196 x 287 cm

5SP TEXT 6 I oil on linen, 55 x 66 in. / 140 x 168 cm

RICARDO MAZAL

2019 Silence in Prague, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York, NY2018 Ricardo Mazal: A 15 Year Survey, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM2017 Violeta, Museo Estación Indianilla, Mexico City, Mexico Violet, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Singapore New Work, Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery, San Francisco, CA2016 Violet, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York, NY2015 Butan Abstracto, Museo Estación Indianilla, Mexico City, Mexico (Catalog) New Paintings, Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto, Canada (Catalog) New Paintings, Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery, San Francisco, CA (Catalog)2014 Bhutan Abstractions, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York, NY Kailash Black Mountain, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Singapore Kailash Black Mountain, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Hong Kong, China2013 New Paintings, Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto, Canada (Catalog) The Kora Dialogues, Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery, San Francisco, CA (Catalog)2012 Kailash, Museo Estación Indianilla, Mexico City, Mexico (Catalog) Kailash, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York, NY Ricardo Mazal Select Works, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Los Angeles, CA2011 Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ KORA, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Hong Kong, China2010 KORA, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York, NY (Catalog) KORA, Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada (Catalog) Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery, San Francisco, CA Ricardo Mazal, Pintura y Fotografía 1994-2009, Museo Abstracto Manuel Felguerez, Zacatecas, ZC, Mexico (Catalog) New Works, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Los Angeles, CA2009 Ricardo Mazal Pintura y Fotografía 1994-2009, Museum of Art, Queretaro, Queretaro, QRO, Mexico (Catalog) Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada2008 Ricardo Mazal Odenwald 1152, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York, NY Ricardo Mazal Odenwald 1152, Mexican Cultural Institute, Washington, DC Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, NM Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery, San Francisco, CA2007 Mas Art Moderno y Contemporáneo, Barcelona, Spain Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Palm Desert, CA Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada2006 Ricardo Mazal, La Tumba de la Reina Roja: From Reality to Abstraction, Centro de las Artes, Pinacoteca, Monterrey, NL, Mexico Ricardo Mazal, La Tumba de la Reina Roja: From Reality to Abstraction, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ Ricardo Mazal, Works 1994 – 2006, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico Ricardo Mazal. Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Palm Desert, CA Ricardo Mazal, New Works. Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID2005 Ricardo Mazal, La Tumba de la Reina Roja: From Reality to Abstraction, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, Mexico (Catalog) From Reality to Abstraction, Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery, San Francisco, CA Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada Chiaroscuro Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ2004 Ricardo Mazal, La Tumba de la Reina Roja: From Reality to Abstraction, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM Ricardo Mazal, Paintings and Monotypes from the series La Tumba de la Reina Roja, Chiaroscuro Gallery. Santa Fe, NM Ricardo Mazal, Obra Reciente, Mas Art Moderno y Contemporáneo, Barcelona, Spain

b. 1950 in MexicoBased in Barcelona, Spain, 1985-1991Currently lives and works in New York, NY and Santa Fe, NM

Since 2000, Ricardo Mazal has had fourteen individual museum exhibitions in Mexico and the United States, including a 2006 retrospective in the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City. He has exhibited extensively in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, ID Robert Kidd Gallery, Birmingham, MI2003 Ricardo Mazal, New Paintings, Elins Eagles-Smith Gallery, San Francisco, CA Ricardo Mazal, New Monotypes, Aurobora Press, San Francisco, CA2002 Ricardo Mazal, Paintings from The Center for Contemporary Arts, Galería Ramis Barquet, Monterrey, NL, Mexico Ricardo Mazal, New Paintings and Monotypes. Ricardo Mazal, Gary Mankus Collaborative Photography, Chiaroscuro Gallery, Santa Fe, NM New Paintings by Ricardo Mazal, The Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM (Catalog) Ricardo Mazal, Abril 15, New Paintings and Works on Paper, Galería Ramis Barquet, New York, NY (Catalog)2001 Ricardo Mazal, Galerie 89, Aarwangen, Switzerland Ricardo Mazal, New Paintings, Photographs and Drawings, Rule Gallery, Denver, CO Ricardo Mazal, Pintura, Fotografía, Dibujo, Galería de Arte Mexicano, Mexico City, Mexico (Catalog) New Monotypes, Aurobora Press, San Francisco, CA2000 Ricardo Mazal, Obras,1991-2000, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), Monterrey, NL, Mexico (Catalog) Recent Paintings, Galería Ramis Barquet, Monterrey, NL, Mexico Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ Robert Kidd Gallery, Birmingham, MI1999 Rule Modern and Contemporary Gallery, Denver, CO Erickson & Elins/Fine Art, San Francisco, CA New Monotypes, Aurobora Press, San Francisco, CA The E - Series, Ramis Barquet Gallery, New York, NY (Catalog) Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ1998 Ricardo Mazal, The Yellow Circle & Eve, Galería Maeght, Barcelona, Spain1997 Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ Yellow Circle Series, Rule Modern and Contemporary Gallery, Denver, CO Michael Dunev Gallery, San Francisco, CA Vail-Giesler Contemporary Art, Des Moines, IA1996 Ricardo Mazal, Pintura y Fotografía, Galería Ramis Barquet, Monterrey, NL, Mexico (Catalog)1994 Galería Maeght, Barcelona, Spain (Catalog)1992 Ricardo Mazal, Pinturas, Dibujos, Grabados, Galería de Arte Mexicano, Mexico City, Mexico (Catalog)1990 Scott Alan Gallery, New York, NY Ricardo Mazal, Pinturas, Galería de Arte Mexicano, Mexico City, Mexico Ricardo Mazal, Pinturas, Galería Arte Actual Mexicano, Monterrey, NL, Mexico1989 Ricardo Mazal, Scott Alan Gallery, New York, NY (Catalog)1988 Huellas del Tiempo, Ricardo Mazal, Galería de Arte Mexicano, Mexico City, Mexico (Catalog) Huellas del Tiempo, Ricardo Mazal, Galería Arte Actual Mexicano, Monterrey, NL, Mexico (Catalog) Galería Nomen, Barcelona, Spain Galería Carl Van Der Voort, Ibiza, Spain

AWARDS

COLLECTIONS

2010 Creador Artistico, Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (FONCA) 2002, Mexico2002 Creador Artistico, Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (FONCA) 2002, Mexico1998 Creador Artistico, Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (FONCA) 1998, Mexico1991 Pollock Krassner Foundation, New York

Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN, USACentro de las Artes, Monterrey, NL, MexicoCirque du Soleil, Montreal, QC, CanadaMACO-UNAM, Mexico City, MexicoMuseo de Arte Moderno (MAM), Mexico City, MexicoMuseo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey (MARCO), Monterrey, NL, MexicoScottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ, USAMaeght Foundation, Paris, FranceMuseo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguérez, Zacatecas, MexicoMuseo del Arzobispado, Mexico City, MexicoBanco de Mexico, Mexico City, MexicoDeutsche Bank, New York, NY USA and GermanyCEMEX, Monterrey, NL, MexicoPatricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, NY, USAThe Apple Corporation, Cupertino, CA, USAThe Peninsula Hotel, Shanghai,ChinaColección Grupo Alfa, Mexico City, MexicoGrinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, USAPrivate Collections in Canada, USA, Mexico, Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, Japan and Korea

196-198 Davenport Road, Toronto ON M5R 1J2 Canada I 416.962.0438 or 800.551.2465 I [email protected]

CREDITS

DESIGN Angela Wagner, Umlaut Design

Front and Back Cover: SP BLACK 18, image 4

ISBN: 978-1-927447-37-6 National Library of Canada “Ricardo Mazal” Copyright: Odon Wagner Gallery, 2019

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