Art can be anything you want it to be, and can be found anywhere you want to see it. That also means that you always have new choices and alternatives in front of you as to what you want to do as an artist, and in the ways you want to develop your artistic expression.
In my own particular case, I have always felt moved by music and it has been that sensibility that has pushed me into my forms and manners of expressing those artistic needs.
Jazz has always been a big part of my life and hence was born my Visual Jazz series, but it has not been the only one. From classical, to hip hop and rap, stepping through pop, rock, tango, aboriginal music, Japanese music, movie themes, and so on, I have always healthily envied the power of music to motivate us and transport us into a different level of sensory perceptions.
Even then I have always made choices. In my particular case I have always felt that there is enough sadness & decadence out there, easily found, so as to also make it an intricate part of my artistic expression. That does not mean that there is no melancholy, or references to the deep inequalities that are always present in our world that are also visible in my art, but I am always looking to express that special “musical quality” that I just mentioned, and that will help elevate our spirits into a superior consciousness that will provide the peace, happiness and energy that is needed to revert all that is wrong.
This is a personal choice. No one will ever find me condemning anyone who wishes to thread into the specific road of expressing the decadence and conflict that surrounds us in a more direct or reflective fashion. Furthermore, if there is an ingredient that is required for our expressions to become artistic, is the need for our art to be freely expressed directly from our innermost feelings and sensibilities.
It is just that in my case, my wish is to inspire from a different posture. I hope that what I do uplifts those who view it. My desire is to leave those who look at my paintings, and my other artistic works, with a feeling of being hugged and caressed by color, movement, cadences and textures. I want them to experience a certain happiness and energy that leads them to leave with the positive belief that we can do whatever we want to do with our lives and with our societies, and with the world as a whole, and try to get it right.
And it is not being shallow, the same way that the other path is not being negative. They are, most of the times, just different ways to arrive to the same principle from different places. It is a recognition of our brevity as living beings and of our limited, yet strong capabilities, to act as individuals in the preservation of life at every level of cellular complexity, and of our interest in caring for this beautiful little blue planet that is the host of an ephemeral (in universal terms) human civilization. A civilization that feels so often all conquering, and yet does not seem capable of resolving matters essential to its very survival as hunger, inequality and environmental sustainability.
In my case my art, perhaps in its own humble way, aims to find an approach to recognizing that no matter how bad things can get, we have also the enormous God-given power to do good, and to change our lives and help others, by example or by direct or indirect action. And to realize that life is an extraordinary gift, and that it is more fulfilling when we give our best, when we show and share our love & affection with others, and when we are forgiving, discarding what is bad and saving all that is good in each one of us, because it is from there that we can build a better society and a better world for all of us.
Art for me, as grandiloquent as it may sound, means hope. It is a complex yet simple manner of showing that we have a soul. Sharing that nakedness of spirit is one of the ways that allows us to get closer to each other, and thus, become better human beings.
If we look throughout history, art has always been one of the saving graces of every passing civilization. Art has always been a redemptive feature of great, as well as small and even destructive civilizations, and art will also be one of our conduits to salvation. As art in its every shape and manner will always be a part of what takes a society out of darkness and, once again, into the light.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Published by Ignacio Alperin Bruvera
ABOUT IGNACIO
Ignacio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, grew up in Australia and lived in several countries around the globe until his return to his country of origin 15 years ago.
At a very young age and with the help of his mother, a talented artist herself, and his father, an engineer internationally renowned for his creativity and innovation, he took his first steps in the world of art. Surrounded by drawing tables, technical pens and architectural influences he began to create his own path.
His early influences were very eclectic and mature for his age. They included great masters like Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso, as well as modern masters like Kandinsky, Pollock, de Kooning and Rauschenberg. Drawing, painting, and a great deal of reading took an important place in his life.
During his early 20s he develops a love affair with jazz, becoming an avid follower of the local Australian jazz scene and as a result, his painting begins to show signs of this inspiration. Complex rhythms, intertwining melodies, and a great deal of improvisational skills are developed in his art.
That slow and jazzy pace also helped him mature his own approaches and techniques while freeing himself from classical ties, finding stimulus in unusual places and developing a unique and sensitive voice.
Added to that, his artistically applied synesthesia –condition which he shares with Kandinsky-, adds to his work an unusual share of musicality and innovation. The artist admits the complexity of combining his artistic imprint with the possibilities this "gift" generates while always underlining that it is a constant exploration, full of achievements as well as challenges.
The result is a fusion that explores the limits of colors and shapes within a marked abstraction. An expressive path without reservations strongly anchored on his individuality and unique experience.
This exploration has not only been applied to his painting. He has also pursued his vision into other forms of artistic expression, including smaller architectural and design projects, and graphic design assignments applied to advertising and marketing.
VISUAL JAZZ
IGNACIO ALPERÍN BRUVERA
The works presented in his Blog are a fraction of the main series developed by the artist and which has been travelling around different cities around the world since 2010. The artist’s "Visual Jazz Tour" encompasses works aided by his synesthesia and based on a visual interpretation of melodies, mainly from traditional and avant-garde jazz, soul, Motown and the American songbook, expressed in shapes and colors.
Fascinated by this musical genre, Alperín has created his own visual language through the same methods of inventiveness and spontaneity as musicians. We find in his paintings spectacular spiral lines and longitudinal strokes which glide through the canvas, outlined by an energetic use of the primary palette, extracting from these colors unthought-of shades and gradations that have become a signature and a characteristic of his bold and powerful style.
In this way he has built its own movement filled language to communicate and engage in a dialogue with the public; mostly divorced from figurative representation, he constructs a visceral abstraction that stimulates the imagination and turn on the viewers’ inner sensations.
Ñ magazine (South America´s largest selling arts and culture magazine), in its issue of September 11, 2010, under the title "IGNACIO ALPERIN in NEW YORK – an Argentine visual Jazz show" went further than that, drawing a parallel between the love of jazz from the great Argentine writer Julio Cortazar and his incorporation of this musical form into literature, with the work of Alperín and his intention to assimilate this same musical form, this time in the realm of visual art.
Many subsequent articles in La Nación and Clarin newspapers (Argentina´s best- selling newspapers), as well as specialized magazines such as the above mentioned Ñ, ADN and Maleva Mag –just to mention a few - have also constantly highlighted his originality and constant growth.
The artist has conceptualized his art in a term that expresses the musicality of his work together with the movement that he seeks to impose on it.
The viewers are thus encouraged to become emotionally involved, transcending everyday reality in a process without space, age or time, towards a more universal, melodic and harmonious view of everything that surrounds them.
The work of Alperín has movement, rhythm, coolness and a degree of visual improvisation that is meant to hide a very well studied score. The result is constant dynamism and exceptional use of color in a never ending search for beats and counterpoints.
This synthesis of Art and music, or "Visual Jazz" as an American journalist baptized it a few years ago, it is almost a trademark of Alperin´s work with a strong track record and exhibitions in New York, Miami, London, Melbourne, Zurich, Lisbon and in Argentina.
Currently, the artist discloses the development of his work and research, and how it applies to corporate and professionally applied creativity in academia, as professor of Creativity and Innovation at the Universidad Católica Argentina (The Argentine National Catholic University in Buenos Aires), and gives seminars on the subject in the context of workshops and events for individuals, companies and artists both in Spanish and English. View all posts by Ignacio Alperin Bruvera
thought ful and intriguing look into your soul as an artist….
Thank you so much Sandra. Like my art, I write what comes from within. I am glad you liked it. 🙂