Page 70 - Ruth Morán

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Gestured Geometry Franciso L. González - Camaño.
It’s all about energy. It´s not easy to explain the nuances and depth of this term in our language. When speculating about energy we must always refer to Aristotle, because he dis- ected this concept in “Ethics for Nicomacus,” and more extensively in “Metaphysics” VI – IX. He claimed, for example, that the study of mathematics and the admiration for art pro- duce pleasure because they both release men- tal energy. Thus pleasure is not only a desire to fill a void but also the creation of energy in the human body or soul1.
The recent works of Ruth Morán have the abil- ity to unfold strength in action, which stems from within the artist herself. On her journey through abstraction, there is a constant display of energy that maintains a positive tension throughout the surface of each painting. On the one hand, there is a constant articulated structure which manages to avoid chaos and disorder; and on the other hand, there is an entropic pulse which -if allowed to follow its fatal course- could lead to destruction and chaos.2
The infinite number of strong, multidirec- tional lines that embody each surface have the amazing virtue of being able to come together visually, creating unity. They convey the artist’s intense physical effort as well as her acute mental concentration. What matters most here is the final result of her work, so Ruth Morán does not mind leaving traces of the process, which develops slowly day after day. In this sense, her work should not be read as “interesting experiments,” (in the way the works of Jackson Pollock or Hans Hofmann were understood in the forties and fifties), but they should be looked at as authentic and sig- nificant declarations which have the value of being the artist’s specific way of understand- ing abstraction. For example, the control in each composition and the sacramental char- acteristics of this genre (well-established due
1. Aristotle. Metaphysics, VI-IX-6.
2. Rudolf Arnheim. “Toward a Psychology of Art. Entropy and art”. Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 1995..
to market trends and the public’s acceptance) have managed to do away with the underlying impulse that throbbed with such agony in the works of abstract pioneers, seeming to indi- cate its future demise.3
Ruth Morán practices abstraction in a very clever way; she does not aspire to break bound- aries (although we would have to ask ourselves what is left to be discovered in art). She does not make the spectator feel defensive. This way she avoids falling into showmanship or the false door of an artifact taken out of con- text. The risk would be not knowing how to resist the temptation of redundancy, although it’s still too soon to judge whether this will happen.
In any case, it is obvious that Ruth Morán is perfectly capable of resolving the risky dia- lectics between impulse and order. Thus, her abstraction prospers toward the unification of contradicting principles: On the one hand, we perceive the vertigo of dissipated energy, on the other we may appreciate a compositional order that tends to the homogeneity of ges- ture. The mix produces a mysterious result that we could describe as gestured geometry, or to be more graphic, an implausible cross between Pollock and Sol Lewitt.
In her paintings, the result tends to be an im- age that is sufficiently potent and autonomous, a powerful image that she is able to achieve in one concentrated composition, and through an infinite reproduction of lines. This im- mense energy is distributed equally through- out the rectangular shape of the canvas, allow- ing the higher and lower ends of the painting to breathe equally, which helps the eye of the observer follow a natural visual path. This path is a paradoxical perception, because the proliferation of undulating lines forms a great, tangled circle whose center we cannot find be- cause it is everywhere, and whose circumfer- ence, which has no beginning or end, appears to be nowhere. Perhaps this is the main reason why the viewer is fascinated by her composi- tions; the attraction has to do with beauty.
3. Donald Kuspit. The article “Seminal entropy: the paradox of modern art” from his work “The end of art”.
Akal, Madrid, 2006.
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