Robert Janitz

Saenger Galería continues its program at Casa Siza with the exhibition Popocatépetl (Love is in the air) by Robert Janitz.

In artistic works we find technical characteristics, materials and executions as elements that exist, progress, disappear or endure. Evolution as the main and ineffable characteristic of art.

The work of Robert Janitz reminds us of the importance of patience and the silence of contemplation, inviting us to enjoy the subconscious process of the details of the pieces and our relationship to them, refusing the immediate effect.

The interdependence of the patterns gives us an overview, finding ourselves awaiting the discovery of different attributes such as baking flour and wax as a medium. The reencounter of marks, the recognition of lines and textures, the interweaving of colors. The strokes of the hands and the blurring give us a different perception of the layers. The transformation of texture as a vehicle for the imagination.

The “wounds” of the work are reminiscent of the beauty in the pieces created by Robert Janitz. What characterizes the artistic object is the process of freedom. The intentionality of not urging, forcing or instrumentalizing the execution of the technique, not imposing anything on the piece. The vehemence of the work, the unreflective execution, allowing oneself to be carried away by impulses.

The movements and natural characteristics, the relationship with the organic, the irregular and the constant change free the obsession of the calculable and controllable process of the work creating a unique perception and personality depending on where it is observed from.

As the artist mentions, his work addresses the ease with which the mind can endow the simplest painted marks with a representational function; the brushstrokes retain their autonomy and suggest the column of a volcano, a strange head or pure mark. His self-reflexive impasto now becomes an almost random anthropomorphic statement.

Popocatepetl, the iconic volcano personified, and its counterpart Iztaccihuatl, both majestically visible on clear days from Mexico City, tell a love story that is a living part of the Mexican psyche.

His work contemplates what is in front of his eyes, both an inanimate piece of nature and a significant local legend; an anchor of identity. The harmony between rationality and illusion, from the physical to the non-physical, the mental. The introspection and progressive unveiling of the work gives us a personal satisfaction, a unique feeling, a memory in the memory. Beauty presupposes a game, an invitation not to miss the fun of cheating, the freedom of an active and conscious process, allowing us to see, to enjoy being exposed to an event.

Beauty is always binding.

— Eduardo Luque