Every time we talk with Juan Suarez Blanco (JSB) there is a constant in the dialogue: music and, specifically, the work of the great Beethoven. At some point the artist thinks of creating his ninth symphony with the designs of abstract or conceptual art, because somehow, after more than 40 years of artistic life, he thinks that his greatest work is yet to be made, to be thought, materialized and exhibited.
Of Artemisian origins and based in Pinar del Rio for decades, JSB, without knowing it, has already created his nine symphonies and much more. It happens that for someone so demanding with himself and with an impressive discipline, the great work of his authorship is still to be done. Perhaps these are the reasons that drive him to constantly surpass himself, to not stay at acceptable goals and to climb higher and higher in that universe called contemporary Cuban art.
Juan is a lover of colors, pop art, Van Gogh and the sea. And a man who is capable of reflecting all that in his works with a unique seal is a fearsome artist, one of those who don't think twice about reinventing himself just because, without much explanation.
During the months of isolation, the professor and sculptor has made numerous paintings and, among them, stands out a series where the clouds are the beginning and the end of the pictorial motifs.
We then called Suarez Blanco to know the details of the aforementioned pieces.
Juan Suarez Blanco (JSB) is an artist who fuses several resources in his works. What materials predominate in the new series allegorical to clouds?
Let's start with gray matter, it is the first resource that I caress to learn to levitate on the rough and narrow roads. Then with some binding agents, pigments, oils, warm wax, some sweat and eye dew we add talcum powder and industrial powders, silica sand, fine sawdust, etc., and so the material mass is gestated to model on the canvas, in addition to the different pigments such as oils, acrylics and some natural ones accompanied by objects that we create and incorporate according to the content or concept of the work. Thus concludes the creative process, where traces of our DNA are registered.
Why the clouds?
They are a biblical and cosmogonic symbol. In Hindu philosophy, clouds are the trigger of deep and mystical emotions that deal with meditation and levitation.
Every time I open the windows of my atelier, there they are! waiting for me to seize them to write and stamp on them my biography and that of all the beings I love.
Michelangelo after many failed attempts found, in the structure of a huge cloud, the imposing scene of the creation of man seen in the Sistine Chapel. A definitive solution for one of the most brilliant works in the History of Art.
From the symbolic and semantic point of view, they are the bridge, the steps between earth and heaven, the earthly and the divine, expressing man's communion with the immensity of the cosmos.
The spirit of tranquility and peace predominant in the aforementioned series, for how long do you think you will be able to capture it in your art?
I have always thought of giving man the best of my art, oriented on the basis of peace, tranquility, joy and hope, although it is not always achieved.
I have tried to listen in nature and, in society itself, the voice of the transcendent; they are vibrations and disturbing sonorities and their symphonies have all filled my creative arsenal to translate with images that peace and love for human beings.
How much has the pictorial creation helped JSB in the current turbulent times?
Art, artistic creation throughout history has helped man in his transformation and humanization process. In these convulsive, accelerated, tachycardic times, men of good will with stoic effort always try to perceive the glass almost full.
Artists who look to the future with optimism will always reflect in their work the antithesis of bad times, as a mechanism of balance and survival to unfold in the light that hides in the back of the storms. Every rainstorm hides an ineffable rainbow. That is my navigation chart.
It is striking that, in the midst of such an adverse world context, your art is a haven of peace.
I want all the peace in the world for my colleagues and friends, and they know that my work has always projected faith in human betterment.
Since my childhood I have had the conviction that all our dreams can be possible. Lying one afternoon on the damp grass watching with an attentive eye the clouds sailing across that cosmic ocean, I exclaimed: "Clouds are like dreams; they are made and unmade to reorganize and reshape themselves into superior, sublime and superhuman images and forms.
Do you have other creations already finished or in the process of production?
In this stage of confinement I have brought to light dozens of sketches and studies, as well as eight finished, unpublished works.
In gestation process is the work No 9, a summary of almost all my work. Now in the phase of studies, sketches and notes, it may be my Ode to Joy, it may be my Ninth Symphony, time will tell the last word.
Published 4/10/2021