Figure
Leopoldo Presas
,Oil on canvas, 100 × 75cm.
Born in 1915, Leopoldo Presas has covered a wide range of production, characterized by well-defined cycles. From an early surrealist stage, during which he associated with the Grupo Orión, he went through an expressionist period, to later approach abstraction, alternating with lyric figuration, finding a continual source of inspiration in the female figure. Throughout his career, Presas has been and continues to be an exquisite colorist, with an unmistakable style, and a sensual mastery in his handling of paint. Three of the four works that pertain to this collection have a common link in the date of their execution and the formal procedures used in them. In effect, Marina (Puerto en día de fiesta) (Seascape [Port on a Day of Celebration]), from 1958, Composición (Puerto de La Boca) (Composition [Port of La Boca]), from 1966, and Composición (Composition), circa 1966, all correspond to a period during which Presas handled the port theme based on concepts of planimetry, with only minimal references to data from reality. Even when in the first two there are signs that allude to a concrete space, La Boca, it is the color that actually constructs the plastic and thematic narrative. In this phase, Presas expressed himself by means of powerful gestures, alternating pure, violent tones, explosive blues, with variations that tranquilize and bring the whole into equilibrium. Marina (Puerto en día de fiesta) is perceived in accordance to this chromatic pattern. There is a festive hubbub of voices that speak from and for color, to the point where it can be seen as an abstract painting. Executed in a more relaxed manner, Composición (Puerto de La Boca) refers back to an evidently urban and human gesture, and once again it is the color that articulates the narrative. The blue of the water, the black of the asphalt, the yellow of a strident day of sun and the figures distributed across the painting’s entire geography express themselves through the language of symbols, as if in a weave from the Paracas culture. Finally, the figurative references in Composición, a face in profile and a raised arm, are bare facts within extremely dense chromatic harmonies that draw the viewer’s concentrated attention. It is a painting that reveals points of contact with the Nueva Figuración movement in terms of the deconstruction of its forms. Made at a later date, Figure is a clearly figurative work, in contrast to its predecessors. Nevertheless, the artist unfolds a vibrant chromatic play on the body of the model that renders homage to his unrestricted admiration for the Fauves, especially those precursors from the beginning of the 20th century who freed color from the prison of drawing in order to give it an identity of its own. This freedom has been an essential characteristic of Leopoldo Presas’ production.