Hello, in this publication I want to refer to one of the most important Venezuelan artists of my country as is the painter Mario Abreu. In this article I want to make my comments and at the same time analyze the author's message through one of his most important paintings. First I want to write about the life of this painter, his childhood, his growth as an artist and everything that could have been the reason for the execution of his valuable works.
Mario Abreu was born on August 22, 1919 in the town of Turmero, Aragua State, Venezuela. Below I will present some of his phrases that refer to his life and childhood.
"My mother was a poor woman who had to work in the fields and gave me to the Borges, so, I fostered a black family and there I learned all the magical rites, black magic that is what I apply in my works , in my magic objects and in my belief "- Mario Abreu
Comment: Without a doubt Mario Abreu was a painter inclined towards the spiritual field, his inclination for this field arose as part of his values acquired as a human being by a family that gave his care. We are located in a context of his life where this character really begins to find himself, his inner being, his inclination towards a spiritual figure together with experiences that influence all his expressions.
In 1928 he worked as a clerk in a store and began to draw copying cartoons by Leoncio Martínez published in the magazine Fantoches. Later he painted landscapes and flowers with crayons and watercolors. In 1930 he moved to the city of Caracas and settled there in a place called Monte Piedad and in 1933 he returned to his hometown in Turmero. In the year 1940 Mario Abreu comes in direct contact with artists.
In the year 1942 he participated in the Official Hall with three works of art entitled: Still Life (oil), Flowers (watercolor) and Los Totumos Avenue (drawing). That year he obtains a scholarship that allows him to follow day courses at the School. Among his teachers were Marcos Castillo, Antonio Edmundo Monsanto, Juan Vicente Fabbiani, Rafael Ramon Gonzalez and César Prieto, and, among his colleagues, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Pascual Navarro, Carlos Gonzalez Bogen, Mateo Manaure and Alejandro Otero. In 1944 he participated in the Official Salon of Caracas with two of his oil paintings called Trees. His style of those years was oriented towards cubism and the formal synthesis of spaces and figures. In the year 1947 they finish their studies in the School; for this date he paints his famous self-portrait (Martín Pérez Abreu collection).
This year he participates in the Official Hall with his work: Flores, Bodegón y senda; in the 1949 edition with the oil paintings Self-portrait and Still life, and in the 1950's with the oils Harlequin, The forest and The forest; the cake, The lady of the parrot, and the drawing X-ray. During these years he appeared in the exhibitions "Young Painters of the Free Workshop", made in several schools in the city of Caracas. In the works of that period the use of strong and warm colors, violent strokes and a thematic search with elements of the local idiosyncrasy are observed. Towards the fifties it practices a greater stylistic definition when approaching subjects related to traditions and elements of the nature. In this period, roosters and floras appear.
For his runner-up to the National Award, the Government of Aragua state and the Directorate of Culture of some institutions grant him a scholarship that allows him to travel in April 1952 to Paris, where he will stay for 10 years with the financial help of his brother Martín Pérez Abreu. His stay in France causes a sudden break with his plastic language and his incursion into the late forms of surrealism.
Comments: Mario begins to create a strange iconography, where the vegetable, the animal, the human and even the abstract make up a whole animated by the same organic force, as if in each thing, each object, each color and each form, a magic alive, an awareness capable of allowing others to reflect, giving meaning to the universe and the world "
In the year 1962, Abreu returns to Caracas and with other artists represents Venezuela in the XXXI Venice Biennial. In 1963 he presents an individual exhibition with paintings made in Paris and reworked in his workshop in Caracas.
Comments: "Despite its uniformity, Abreu's painting is not always identical to itself, it generates new appearances of itself and one could almost say that with its movement it embraces all the sequences of the evolution of such appearances. his painting was the concept of mutability carried to the most radical extremes, but also the most evanescent. "Source: (Da Antonio, 1963).
Also in this year he participates in "Homage to Caracas: Venezuelan Painting" (Municipal Council of the Federal District, Caracas); the XXIV Official Salon with La natividad, La estrella de Belén and Cauda de la flora (GAN collection) and at the XXI Arturo Michelena Salon with Vegetable Dance, later called the Amazon Rainforest (GAN collection). In 1964 he sent the constellated bull (MACMMA collection) to the XXII Arturo Michelena Hall. That year he won the Antonio Esteban Frías Award at the XXV Salón Oficial with Tres Diablos and participated in "The 1948 Workshop: Retrospective Exhibition", organized by Francisco Da Antonio at the Maraury Society (Petare, Miranda State).
CONSTELLATION AVE
The constellation Mario Abreu is 127 centimeters high and 127 centimeters wide. It was made in 1955, this wonderful piece of art with a very square aspect is one of the most important pieces of the plastic artist Mario Abreu, during his stay in In France, Abreu's works took on a much more organic and vital aspect, mainly a personality much more open to color, tones and contrasts.
The perspective of the work I can write that his vision in the two-dimensional plane is totally average. There is a domain of elements and space through two techniques of repetition of points, and in turn its rhythmic state.
There is a high contrast and mastery of the tones and color. Mainly the search for a state whose perfect proportion is evident is observed. Mario Abreu was an artist who loved the spiritual realms of being, so he had to be accentuated in the arts with the essence of representations through color and the repetition of points that gave personality to his religious and mythical works.
On the other hand remember that Abreu was an artist who developed the ability to openly show a belief by the dark magic spirits, however his stay in Europe molded his mind towards good graphic interpretation, which means, that his works kept a much more full of life, disciplined, there is a knowledge about light and the scale of values.