In the beginning it was the body. Considered the only certainty in the face of the enigmatic outside world, its representation obeyed the desire to clarify the essence and destiny of the human being. Questions contained in ivory sculptures, Egyptian sarcophagi and frescoes, Indian looms or Roman masks that have marked the annals of ancient art. Perhaps with a desire for transcendence similar to that desired by the great dictators of the last century when they mass-produced their effigy. Through the self-portrait, the contemporary creator also participates in that figurative tradition that has glorified power, promoted comparisons and doubts, extolled beauty. A historical story that ties together the last CaixaForum Madrid exhibition,
The Human Image. Art, identities and symbolism
.
Produced in collaboration with the British Museum, it houses 150 pieces from different periods.
The first one is a large mirror that invites you to contemplate yourself.
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The tour starts from the modeled skull of a Palestinian man who lived 9,500 years ago.
In the eye sockets he keeps seashells and the face has been recreated with plaster, an early expression of the portrait in honor of the dead.
The Neolithic works later coexist with other more recent ones, signed by great authors such as Henri Matisse, Goya, David Hockney, Auguste Boucher-Desnoyer, Tom Wesselmann, Antoni Tàpies or a
madrazo
.
With the exception of the latter, from the Prado Museum, the works come from the British Museum.
Brendan Moore, curator and curator of this London art gallery, points out by videoconference that "the body is a vehicle of ideas".
Despite the great variety of aesthetics and objectives, the selected figurations embody concepts common to all communities and peoples.
Does the human condition reside there?
In the 'The Divine Body' section of the CaixaForum Madrid exhibition, a 'madrazo' by Isabel la Católica coexists with busts of Julio César, Marco Antonio or Cleopatra.
Maximo Garcia de la Paz
Brendan suggests that some contemporary discourses, although they sound novel, “have always been there”, such as the desire to transform the appearance and, consequently, the identity. The exhibition's intrahistoric journey is divided into four epigraphs that avoid any chronology:
Ideal Beauty
,
Portraits
,
The Divine Body, the Political Body
and
Body Transformation
. The first of them investigates how various artistic traditions have built a different canon of perfection. The voluptuous femininity of an Iraqi statuette from 5,000 BC seems to sympathize with the
Great Odalisque dressed in striped trousers,
lithographed by Henri Matisse in 1925. On one side, digital artist Koya Abe reviews Velazquez's iconography of the
Venus in the mirror
, tattooing the body of the goddess with traditional Japanese motifs. Anthropomorphic creations that "reflect norms and beliefs of the communities where they were created," says the curator.
There is a passion for antiquity. This sixth collaboration between the two museums spans 10 millennia in the history of art. Elisa Durán, deputy general director of the La Caixa Foundation, emphasizes that "current social circumstances force us to look at the body in a different way, for months we have related more through the image than in person". A singular and reflective image like those that populate the second section of the exhibition, dedicated to portraiture. Although its basic function is to show the external appearance of the model, it can also express much more. The blurred and energetic lines that make up
Julia's Head
(1985), by the British Frank Auerbach, capture the instantaneousness of psychic pain.
Instead, the life-size self-portrait of Pakistani Ali Kazim is devoid of all emotion.
He appears naked, almost inert, with his head bowed.
In the CaixaForum exhibition 'The human image.
Art, identities and symbolism 'ancient art abounds, which dialogues with modern works.Maximo Garcia de la Paz
In
The Divine Body, the Political Body
The symbolism associated with deities, religious carvings and sacred objects abounds, but also their modern equivalents: monarchs and rulers as revered as those. A marble Apollo, several Buddhas and Amun-Ras followed by Napoleon Bonaparte in his usual warlike allegory, portrayed by Auguste Boucher-Desnoyer in 1808. At his side stands out a large-format canvas by Isabel la Católica dated 1848, with which his The author, Luis de Madrazo, wanted to start a monarchical icon library within the Prado. The queen stands, crowned and draped in a sumptuous scarlet gown with pearls and gold dangling from it. In the room where it is exhibited, it seems that he is observing Mao Tse Tung, represented in one of the statuettes that the Chinese Cultural Revolution produced en masse.An adjoining display case houses the election campaign insignia of Barak Obama and Donald Trump. The power resides in even the smallest media.
Figure of Mao Tse Tung, produced in series during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, shown in the exhibition 'The human image' at the CaixaForum in Madrid.Maximo Garcia de la Paz
Those responsible for the proposal wanted to go beyond the gesture of gathering a few pieces and have accompanied the set with a series of questions.
Written or projected on the walls, they challenge the viewer and guide him through the journey.
"When you take a photo, do you use any trick to show or hide parts of your body?", Can be read next to a photograph of the American Christopher Williams.
At first glance, his work
Study in Yellow and Red / Berlin
(2008) seems to rummage through the common places of fashion. A detailed look, however, will verify that the model in question exhibits a large number of freckles, has fixed the breaks in her bra with small tweezers and does not hide the folds of her belly. "The most important gestures for someone may not be very visible," says Moore.
The reflective intention of the mirror is replicated at the end of the tour, by the hand of the digital artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. In his
Recorded Assembly
installation
,
a multi-camera arrangement produces the visitor's live portrait from six simultaneous perspectives. When several people approach the work, the system develops a photograph made up of their different facial features. “It's like the reinvention of the group portrait!” Exclaims a woman when observing the result. A kind of collective selfie in the time of individuality.