ARCHIVED - Sicre by Gonzalo Sicre in the MURAM Cartagena

'Entre lo humano y lo sublime'

'Between the human and the sublime'

From 4th October to 31st December 2019

Museo Regional de Arte Moderno. (MURAM); Click for map

Opening times: Tuesday to Friday from 10.00 to 14.00 and 17.00 to 19.00. Saturdays from 11.00 to 14.00 and again from 17.00 to 20.00. Sundays and Festival days from 11.00 to 14.00. Closed on Mondays.

Sicre is an exhibition by Gonzalo Sicre, born in Cádiz but now based in Cartagena, featuring oil paintings, ceramics and drawings, although at times the visitor could be forgiven for approaching an image on the wall in order to verify by more closely examining the piece, whether the artist has cunningly inserted the occasional photograph into his exhibition, so realistic are some of the pieces on show.

The works play with contrast; light and dark, space and density, large and small, open spaces and a spotlight on an innocuous detail aiming to create a link between the human and the sublime.

This may sound like a fairly lofty ideal to the casual onlooker, but is something artists and writers have been seeking to portray for hundreds of years, the idea of a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement, or imitation (the sublime) relating to the reality of nature, the reality of human truth and our own endless struggle to work out where we ourselves fit in within the greater picture.

A simple way to think of this is a portrayal typically found in the works of mid nineteenth century Romantic artists who produced epic works showing the magnitude and aesthetic qualities of nature in relation to humanity, typical scenes featuring a wealthy gentleman traveller who although wealthy and important in his own self-contained world, is an insignificant and transient figure in the foreground of the powerful and imposing mountain landscape behind him.

This type of theme can be seen again and again in Romantic works and literature, one excellent example being the writings of John Dennis in 1693 after a journey through the Alps, describing his feelings for the beauty of nature as a "delight that is consistent with reason", and the experience of the journey was “at once a pleasure to the eye as music is to the ear”, but "mingled with Horrours, and sometimes almost with despair".

Contemporary explorations of this theme recur throughout this exhibition as the artist adopts a naturalistic pantheistic vision ( pantheism being the idea that the Universe and God are in fact one or that reality is identical with divinity) exploring the immensity of the extension or duration of the universe (pleasure for the observer's knowledge of his own insignificance and of his unity with nature).

The artist explains that the sublime is nowhere yet can be in everyone, it is emptiness and fullness, heaven and hell, the greatest and the least, it breaks with space and time, and with the principle of reality, because it is within us. Emptiness, darkness, loneliness and silence are all sublime emotions, and the artist deliberately sets out to prompt questions about his works, making them mysterious and provocative, prompting questions and suspense.

He seeks to evoke curiosity to know what is hidden behind each painting and this is precisely the essence of the artist's work, since the key to each of the works lies in what we do not see.
 

Click for further information in English about the Cartagena municipality