Portal de Cieza
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Those who have had the opportunity to contemplate with their own eyes what they consider the Sistine Chapel of Paleolithic art do not hesitate for a moment to give the same recommendation: at least once in life you must visit the Altamira cave.
Not all people can access a shelter to see the wonders of rock art.
Maximina Espeso wants to contribute to disseminate, but above all to "socialize", the jewels of rock art through creativity.
To see them, the Cantabrian artist and anthropologist uses a technique that generates material backgrounds whose texture resembles the wall of a cavity.
To those realistic canvases incorporates the original traces that gave rise to the first artistic expressions in the history of mankind.
The first humans created permanent colors with natural pigments.
Paleolithic cave painters used minerals and ocher red and yellow.
As the dark blue of an October sky or the warm orange of an autumn sunset cannot be retained.
Perhaps the ephemeral nature of color prompted primitive humans to seek ways to dominate them.
They watched as the fires blackened the ceilings of the caves and smeared the walls with red and yellow ocher.
Now the artist Maximina Espeso, an artist specializing in the interpretation of rock art, reproduces the jewels of parietal art in the exhibition 'Art in the caves', the new proposal of the Department of Museums and Historical Heritage that will be open to the public until 24 November at the Siyâsa Museum.
Much of his work focuses on rock art.
The exhibition is very useful to show the public what symbolic thinking is, the greatest innovation in the history of mankind, which gave rise to the first artistic expressions.
And it is that the greatest human achievement was not the stone tools or the iron swords, but the invention of symbolic expression according to the curator of the exhibition, the Prehistory Professor Joaquín Lomba.
They are extraordinary testimonies of man's first steps in the artistic adventure.
Thousands of years later, the strength of these pictorial manifestations continues to fascinate the observer.
In his words, "if we had to choose a characteristic that substantially differentiates us from sapiens from other hominid species, it would be to have symbolic thought."
Art has an incomparable power: it transcends differences, connects with people's feelings and drives action.
Therefore, Espeso is convinced of the need to disseminate and "socialize" this universal heritage of prehistoric origin.
In his opinion, "I have considered for some time that the 'socialization' of rock art is a very necessary task that affects many of us. I have been able to see parietal paintings destroyed by simple ignorance. When we know and know something we value and protect it. Knowing our past allows us to be aware of ourselves in the present and have the capacity to plan for the future. I want to prevent many of these coats from being unprotected and some of them subject to ignorance graffiti. "
He also believes that the aesthetic experience has to do "not only with the intelligence and sensitivity of the author, but also with that of the viewer. In my exhibition career of more than fifteen years I have been able to verify the subjective effect caused in the viewer. Sometimes refer to connect with images of an ancestral memory, we might even dare to say that of the collective subconscious. "
The reflections on his artistic proposal engage a large audience that observes with admiration his work in an inaugural act that has the presence of the Councilor for Museums and Historical Heritage, Conchi Villa.
Among the attendees are also the Councilor for Tourism, Antonio Moya, and the mayor of the Municipal Corporation, María Turpín.
Knowing the techniques and styles of prehistoric art, Espeso has managed to combine the original line with innovative and modern techniques.
"I am a classic painter and I know the techniques of my trade. I use my own technique through which I generate material, mineral-based backgrounds that resemble the wall of a cave, with the warmth of the Levantine shelters or the coldness of the Northerners. It is a free interpretation and I allow myself small artistic licenses when it comes to reproducing the panels. "
In the exhibition there are reproductions of examples of Levantine rock art declared World Heritage in 1998, including those of Cieza.
It is worth mentioning panel I of the shelter of the Barranco de los Grajos, the 'caprids' of the Cueva del Arco II or the idol of the Serreta.
In addition, the exhibition exhibits the great panel of the Lascaux cave.
"I have painted and reacted in front of the parietal paintings that I have seen throughout my life because they have moved me deeply. Sometimes I see them again and again, and it is usually a sort of discovery, where aspects that have not yet been revealed I had understood, or better, that I had not finished feeling. "
No wonder the author of this work says that.
On the most famous cave paintings in history, Picasso said about the artistic expression that "after Altamira, everything is decay".
Surprising statement when it comes from someone who, in the opinion of almost all the most authorized voices, dedicated his life to inventing and reinventing the language of art with unquestionable success.
"With this resounding affirmation of Picasso everything has already been said," he adds.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Cieza
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