Álvaro Cuartango

In the work of over two decades, Spanish artist Álvaro Cuartango has developed an increasingly abstract expressionist aesthetic equally predicated on process and the final product. Where earlier works reflected a figurative style rooted in cubism, Cuartango now builds on abstract investigations undertaken by the De Stijl group and Mark Rothko. Where those artists flattened the picture plane before deconstructing conventional perspective and balance, Cuartango adds the extra dimensions of texture and light.

In starkly divided color planes, he juxtaposes flat monochromatic rectangles with jagged peaks of built-up oil paint and flurries of colors piled one atop the other in irregular, amorphous shapes. These exercises in tone, texture and perspective ask us to question the way we typically organize pictorial space. Cuartango's paintings offer radical and exciting possibilities for reconsidering the typical ordering of colors, shapes and surfaces. His horizontal and vertical compositions refuse to offer a stable center, background or subject. Each of Cuartango's works lets viewers explore and put together their own meaning from the various parts he puts into play.