CAPA Modifications dialoguing with the world of Matta

[ENG]

From CAPA we are deeply happy to have the opportunity to inaugurate this magnificent exhibition of "painting on painting" proposals and to be able to dialogue with the work of our dearest Roberto Matta. The Espacio Matta houses one of the most important pieces of contemporary Chilean art and Universal Contemporary Art, the mural of "the first goal of the Chilean people." In addition to a large number of etchings and lithographic grades by Matta that take us back to the decade of the 70's of the 20th century and deal with topics such as the ties that were strengthened between the Cuban and Chilean people in the 70's, as well as other works of a more experimental nature and that were part of his series of "displaced objects" made in Florence that gave free rein to physical and psychic automatism for the construction of universal spaces, always making reference to the metamorphosis of the origin of creation. The space is a gigantic Museum in the shape of a bunker that was inaugurated in 2010 and was built precisely to preserve such a valuable mural that I have mentioned previously (and that can be seen in the subsequent images) and that Roberto Matta developed with great enthusiasm that led to the ascension of Salvador Allende. Regarding the support of this mural, we know that it was made on one of the walls that closed the municipal swimming pools of the commune of La Granja; a peripheral neighborhood of Santiago de Chile where culture basically did not reach and that Roberto Matta, following the ideas of solidarity that Salvador Allende's company intended, fulfilled to develop a magnificent collective work together with a group of students from the neighborhood and thus democratize art .

The "Espacio Matta" thus represents being a space full of history that acted as a new source of culture and to become an example for "the artistic colonization of the outskirts of Santiago". Aware of this, the CAPA Modificaciones exhibition was designed as a meeting space between the works of Roberto Matta and that of some artists from the "Collective Automatic Painting Amsterdam": Freddy Flores Knitoff, José Estevão, James Burns and Patricio Álvarez Aragón with the Special invitation from Bastiaan van de Welden (critic) and who are interested in the practice and investigation of a type of pictorial proposal called "Modification" and which greatly delves into a type of collaborative-conceptual painting. The exhibition exhibits 16 pictorial proposals of various dimensions and ranging from 30x30cm to 70x80cm. CAPA Modifications will be available in the central showroom of "Matta Space" until March 26, 2023.

Here are some photos from the exhibition:

[ESP] 

Desde CAPA estamos profundamente contentos de tener la posibilidad de inaugurar está magnifica muestra de propuestas de "pintura sobre pintura" y poder dialogar con la obra de nuestro queridísimo Roberto Matta. El Espacio Matta alberga una de las piezas más importantes del arte contemporáneo chileno y del Arte Contemporáneo Universal, la obra mural de "el primer gol del pueblo chileno". Además de un gran número de aguafuertes y gradados litográficos de Matta que nos llevan de vuelta a la década de los años 70's del siglo XX y tratan temas como los lazos que se potenciaron entre el pueblo cubano y chileno en los años 70's, asimismo como otras obras de carácter más experimental y que formaron parte de su serie de "objetos desplazados" realizados en Florencia que daban rienda suelta al automatismo físico y psíquico para la construcción de espacios universales, siempre haciendo referencia a la metamorfosis del origen de la creación. El espacio es un gigantesco Museo en forma de bunker que se inauguró en el año 2010 y fue construido precisamente para conservar tan valioso mural que he citado anteriormente (y que se puede ver en las imágenes posteriores) y que Roberto Matta desarrolló con gran entusiasmo que suscitó la ascensión de Salvador Allende. En cuento al soporte de este mural, sabemos que fue realizado sobre uno de los muros que cerraban las piscinas municipales de la comuna de la Granja; un barrio periférico de Santiago de Chile dónde básicamente la cultura no llegaba y que Roberto Matta siguiendo las ideas de solidaridad que la empresa de Salvador Allende pretendía, cumplió para desarrollar una magnifica obra colectiva junto a un grupo de estudiantes del barrio y así democratizar el arte.

El "Espacio Matta" así representa ser un espacio lleno de historia que actuó como nuevo foco generador de cultura y para llegar a ser un ejemplo para "la colonización artística de las periferias de Santiago". Consientes de esto, la exposición de CAPA Modificaciones se trazó como un espacio de encuentro entre las obras de Roberto Matta y la de algunos artistas del "Collective Automatic Painting Amsterdam": Freddy Flores Knitoff, José Estevão, James Burns y Patricio Álvarez Aragón con la invitación especial de Bastiaan van de Welden (crítico) y que están interesados en la práctica e investigación de un tipo de propuesta pictórico que se llama "Modificación" y que ahonda en gran medida un tipo de pintura colaborativa-conceptual. La exposición exhibe 16 propuestas pictóricas de diversas dimensiones y que van desde los 30x30cm a los 70x80cm. Capa Modificaciones estará disponible en la sala de exposición central del "Espacio Matta" hasta el 26 de marzo de 2023.

A continuación algunas fotografías de la exposición:

CAPA Modifications exhibition at CCEM "Matta Space"

[ENG]

CAPA is pleased to invite you to its new exhibition CAPA Modificaciones that will be available until March 26, 2023 at the CCEM "Espacio Matta" in Santiago de Chile.

[ESP]

CAPA tiene el agrado de invitarles a su nueva exposición CAPA Modificaciones que estará disponible hasta el día 26 de Marzo de 2023 en el CCEM "Espacio Matta" de Santiago de Chile.

Modifications in Aljustrel

Our last exhibition was at the beginning of February 2022 and there are some things that remained anonymous due to the great reception that the exhibition had and the scarce existence of catalogs that were made. That is why here we will reproduce the full text published in said catalog. The text in question refers to the dialectic that exists between the works of CAPA and Don Quixote; whom we adopted as an amulet for this exhibition and who, following the programmatic ideas of the same, is a clear difference from other Riders, such as the prestigious group of artists of the Blue Rider in a Saint George with a great religious charge and for being basically the symbol who rules Bavaria. With everything here, the text is reproduced and we add some photographs of the exhibition that was entirely organized by the José Estevao component in conjunction with the CAA; which has already appeared as a frequent space for the most experimental samples of CAPA since 2018.

 

CAPA found its Blaue Reiter in Don Quijote

CAPA is happy to meet again for a small exhibition in Aljustrel (Portugal) with Don Quixote and his misadventures as the main character. For CAPA the figure of Don Quixote is symbolic as was Saint George for the collective of expressionist artists of the Blue Rider (der Blaue Reiter) in Munich (Vasili Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke, Gabriele Münter, Alexei von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, Paul Klee, among others ...) and that, unlike CAPA, in the Blue Rider this signified a symbol of spiritual freedom and artistic justice, clearly in tune with the story of Saint George and the Dragon and that CAPA has reinterpreted adopting the figure of Don Quixote, another chivalrous character but who, unlike Saint George or the Blue Rider, represents a symbol of the wealth of madness and a magnificent speech of the imagination that broadly demonstrated the disagreements of objective automatism and freedom over impediments of reason, thus more than an iconography if perhaps more ethical and religious linked to the spiritual, CAPA presents its own Rider who, unlike being the liberator of the spiritual, reivindicates as liberator of Madness as the true source of creation, to the first thing that passes through the mind, the hands and his vital attitude of acting openly and that in the work are defined in the intense search for the ideals of freedom, justice, and love. Don Quixote has suffered, like any classic work, all kinds of interpretations and criticisms. Miguel de Cervantes provided in 1615, through the mouth of Sancho, the first report on the impression of the readers, among whom "there are different opinions: some say: 'crazy, but funny"; others, "brave, but miserable"; others, "courteous, but impertinent." Opinions that already contain the two later interpretative tendencies: the comic and the serious. However, the novel was received in its time as a book, in the words of Cervantes himself, "of entertainment", as an exhilarating book of ridicule or as a hilarious and withering parody of chivalric books. However, we could establish that the figure of the same protagonist is a symbol of beauty-madness, gallantry, and "clairvoyance", depending on how it looks. Be that as it may, this small project adds 16 modifications by Gustave Doré (French engraver and illustrator) and that the members of CAPA: Freddy Flores Knistoff, José Estevão, James Burns, Patricio Álvarez Aragón, and Eduardo Rojo have shed light through their own perspective and automatic gaze.

Exhibition statement

Patricio Álvarez Aragón

Dublin, 2021

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Modifications as a pioneer of CAPA

Martin van Zomeren (front), Freddy Flores Knistoff (background), and Rik Lina (right) worked on a few "Modifications" in 1992 at the Galerie 13 in Hannover.

There are a few things to say about this great and unknown picture taken by Mauricio Jalil at the Galerie 13 in Hannover but first of all, I would like to remark on perhaps the work produced at this "happening" as a kind of intent of doing "Modifications". This is very important due to the fact that CAPA never worked in this format/idea but only Collective Automatic Painting or Automatic Painting. Freddy tells us that he especially brought some posters from the Stedelijk Museum with the intention of painting them over at the opening of this exhibition (these posters remain today at the Galley 13). Regarding this, we all already know that Freddy from the beginning before CAPA was already interested in "Modification" due to the influence of Asger Jorn, but he never realized that this could be the impetus to create the Collective Automatic Painting. In fact, Collective Automatic Painting is a kind of Process Art where the painting is modified in situ several times so it is continuously "Modified" in favor of the final result. Obviously here, this still wasn't theorized and wasn't thought through but the idea was there from the beginning. I also believe that the only in understand this idea was only Freddy since "Modification" is an artistic process that is very difficult to understand and it takes many years to be able to understand it, what is more, very recently it has been possible to develop an artistic process that is linked to the "Collaborative" more than the "Collective" or "Destructive" or "Vandalized". The Modification in painting is rather an act of working with what is found, discovering a hidden path of the narrative that has been put before us. It is not about covering what exists, much less destroying it. It is adaptation and discovery. About this picture, we also know that only a few CAPA participants participated due to the fact that this exhibition was a "collective" where were invited various artists from the International Surrealism collective at that moment also linked with Edouard Jaguer. Freddy tells us that the curator of the gallery was a very good friend of Jaguer and just before this exhibition called "Crossing Borders" in German "Grenzänge" he made an exhibition called "Methamorphases" which gathered artists from Phases. However, this exhibition brought together the following artists: 

 

Freddy Flores Knistoff (Amsterdam), Karol Baron (Bratislava), Guy Ducornet (Le puy Notredame), Rikki Ducornet (Denver), Kathleen Fox (Wales), Marco Fragasso (Hannover), Mathias Lyssy (Göttingen), Miguel Lohlé (Amsterdam), Rik Lina (Amsterdam), Paul Goodman (Gouda), Paul Hammond (London), Dave Bobroske (Utrecht), Conroy Maddox (London), Tony Pusey (Örkelljunga), Carlos Re (Argentina), Gerald Stack (London), Katharina van Hoffs (Hannover), Geert van Mulken (Amsterdam), Gerda van der Krans (Nijmegen), Martin van Zomeren (Amsterdam), John Welson (London), Philip West (Zaragoza), Rainer Wichering (Hannover), Mauricio Jalil (Santiago de Chile / Amsterdam) and Michael Woods (London).

The avant-garde won’t give up

Collective Automatic Painting over wall and Gerda van der Krans "automatic sculptures" at the Gallery 13 (Germany, Hannover) during a "Collective Automatic Painting" exhibition held in October 1992. In the picture: Freddy Flores Knistoff (front) and Dave Dobroske (background) working (Action Painting) over Gerda sculptures hanged in the same wall, creating a sort of a Collective Automatic Experimental Installation. This picture was taken by Mauricio Jalil (photographer and friend of Freddy)

Making a nemotechnical exercise through the dense documentation that involves the History of Art and this movement of automatic artists and, always attending the main source of such context through the automatic artist Freddy Flores Knistoff; we see how from the beginning of the practice of Collective Automatic Painting there was a continuity with ideas related to the "Modificationism" as a field of experimentation. This is how Freddy tells us that even before the realization of the countless canvases he realized next to Rik Lina in 1991 at the Kennedylann studio in Amsterdam; he already worked for several years under the aesthetic concepts of the "Modificationism", proof of this, are the same works that he shared in other artistic activities and publications prior to the emergence of the Collective Automatic Paintings, such as the publications of the Anarchist-Surrealist magazine "Droomschaar" (pictures (1), (2)) or the same Freddy exhibitions at Hannover Gallery 13. Wathever the case may be, the experimental opening that occurred in CAPA always operated as a skillful conservator of this artistic trend and that Freddy himself inserted from the beginning in performing what it means today CAPA. On the history of "Modificationism" there is a capital and mandatory text for the understanding of this variant or rather, knowledge of what it was "the last European vanguard" from a historiographical point of view. The thesis in question is that of the researcher and Art Historian Karen Kurczynski, (today associated Professor of Art History at the University of Massachusetts) entitled: "Expressions as Vandalism: Asger Jorn's" Modifications "published in the research magazine of the University of Massachusetts in 2008, "Anthropology and Aesthetics" Volume 53-54 in Association with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University; text that we include integrally below. To recap, the text in question talks about the importance of this "trend" that arose around 1959 under other aesthetic concepts such as that of the "New Disfigurations" in the work of Asger Jorn and soon from other artists such as Enrico Baj and Daniel Spoerri and who drank other artistic solutions contributed by the genius of Marcel Duchamp . However, each artist understood in a different way the hatching of this type of artistic solution but unwittingly opened a new field of experimentation that until today has been maintained as something innate of contemporary artistic production. It is also interesting to note that this type of attitude arose as a protest, a protesting attitude that protested - if you will forgive the repetition- about the alienation of the historical vanguard's by the Parisian Artistic Academy. Therefore, we could say that this protest arose as a new solution to the demands of a context marked by the "robbery and mercantilism" of the historical avant-garde's and what is already popularly accepted as valid. That is why the new "Modification" movement was presented as the last great and genuine movement or "ism" of liberation of Arts.

Expression as Vandalism: Asger Jorn's "Modifications" by Karen Kurczynski 

 

(1)

(2)

"The Wedding Feast", a CAPA "Automatic Collaborative Modification" from 1997

"The Wedding Feast" (acrylic, 80 x 60cm) is an unpublished "collaborative modification painting" of CAPA components James Burns and Carlos Re, signed and dated in 1997, over a large format reproduction of namesake title (c. 1567) painted by the dutch master, linked to the sixteenth-century painting, Pieter Brueghel the Elder. About the original painting of Brueghel, displayed here we know that this masterpiece was part of his "peasant life" paintings done between (1567/1568). This paintings illustrated the peasant life from northern europe, being the most outstanding examples of Brueghel's late style, which is characterized by his use of monumental Italianate figures. In fact, it was paintings of this type which caused Brueghel to be known as the Peasant Brueghel. In addition, we know that he was a leading member of a highly circle in Antwerp. With our increasing knowledge of the symbolism contained in much sixteenth-century northern painting, it seems likely that, in addition to the obvious celebration of peasant life, the pictures have a strong moral dimension too.

 

"The Wedding Feast" is a "collaborative modification" from CAPA components: James Burns & Carlos Re, signed and dated in 1997.

 

James Burns, talk us about the importance of the collaborative process between the components but also, with the same Pieter Brueghel, through time, resulting a collaborative work redefined 430 years later giving it a new perspective. Renaissance painting is well know for being an illusionist transmitter and difusser of life of that era, an aesthetic idea which was soon coupled with the idea of "the Albertian window", the creation of an illusion that for experimental artists of the Knistoff branch, remains open to the reinvention and critical recontextualization.

 

"The Wedding Feast" by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, c. 1567 (Oil on wood, 114 x 164 cm)

About Carlos Re (Argentina), we know that was member of the CAPA collective between 1993-1997, as well as the dutch artist Martin van Zomeren who participated very actively alongside Freddy and James during that period. Anyway, the story of Carlos is very mysterious because, since a trip to Spain in 2000, Freddy or James, never heard again from him. Neither in the circles of the Spanish Surrealism, Experimental Art, nor International Surrealism. His story reminds me a lot the Dada story of Arthur Cravan, missing in action and at the same time reinvented in any other kind of being. Luckily, we still have James and Freddy to remind us about this CAPA members and the way they contributed to the CAPA cultural heritage.

About James Burns, we can happily announce that he continues working actively in the CAPA Movement since he was invited by Freddy in 1994, and now become one of the strongest pillars of the Movement. Particularly, in this "collaborative modification" work, is pretty easy to identify the hand of James, in that white-bolds brushstrokes, very characteristic of his minimal style wide know between the CAPA components. The interest of J. Burns beyond CoBrA is the american type, the Action Painting and the Post-Painterly Abstraction Movements; being one of its most influential artist the minimal artist Robert Motherwell. Another link to CAPA History on hands of this Post-Minimal Automatic artist.

 

James Burns at his Studio in Seattle (June 14, 2019)