The Neo-Mudéjar series constitutes an on-going examination of the formal and conceptual elements associated with interactions between Western and Oriental art forms. The series name echoes the term Mudéjar used in Spain to refer to the Moors who invaded present-day Andalucia in AD 711, and who remained in what is now Spanish territory until the end of the 15th-Century. The daily contact of both cultures for more than seven centuries is still visible in architectural elements present in churches and public buildings, not only in the Iberian Peninsula, but also in Latin America, where the Spaniards brought with them their Arab/Islamic cultural heritage. The “new”/ “neo” aspects of the series works point out to the multicultural nature of the paintings, which unite Oriental, North African, Islamic, Spanish, and Latin American visual elements.
Built with acrylic and mixed media on canvas and paper, the images play with broken and irregular symmetries, borrowed freely from Islamic art and architecture. The works also quote the artists such as Barnett Newmann, Franz Kline, Brice Marden’s panels and glyphs, and Jasper Johns’ and Terry Winters’ crosshatches. In a less obvious manner, the images are related to the “spatial concepts” of the Italian artists Lucio Fontana, Mario Sironi, and Giorgio Morandi,as well as to the spatial explorations of Latin American artists, such as Zdravko Ducmelic, Alfredo Hlito, and Joaquín Torres-García.
It is my hope that, through their visual values, the works could provide clues for sustaining positive relationships among diverse visual cultures and peoples.
Gustavo Fares 