yin-yang-en

YIN YANG / SELF-PORTRAIT / YEARS 2009 - 201

In September 2009, once the possibilities offered by the series of works that myself called "The sea" was exhausted, and considering that I had the project to move away from my workshop about three or four months, I started casually a self-portrait. The purpose was to do a few days’ work, which took a relatively short time. The fact is that the first self-portrait was followed by others and, thus, without having a priori consciousness, I started a series of self-portraits, ignoring what the content, number or characteristics would be. This is usually what happens when an artist does not program the results or the features of the work a priori.

The beginning of the first self-portrait was casual. Looking for canvases and folders in the workshop, one particular canvas fell into my hands with a self-portrait that I had begun for many years and that, for unknown reasons, I had never finished. The fact that the canvas was stapled on the sides of the frame showed that the painting was started a long time ago, because for many years, I have always been stapling the canvas on the back of the racks. In this last case, the small side of the canvas stapled on the frame is part of the work. A mirror of 1.7 meters allowed me to see myself and on the same old painting, to start another self-portrait, whose characteristics have nothing to do with the old one.

The strong chromatic contrast between the right and left side of the face, light and shadow, lead me to call it: "Yin Yang portrait". In this painting light is determined by a warm orange-red color and the shade by a green cold color. Due to the fact that the Yin Yang relationship wasn’t revealed in a conscious way to me, at the beginning and in the later process of creating this self-portrait, the strong contrast, both chromatic and luminous, was limited to an artistic formulation.

Originally, I never thought of this duality, two forces, phenomena or principles of life which, for many centuries now, have been part of Chinese life: astrology, philosophy, art, forms of thought, etc. etc. In this first self-portrait, my idea was just to combine a simple contrasting chromatic duality. A duality based on two complementary colors, orange and green.

Two small self-portraits as simple studies followed, and another one, in which an attempt to achieve a strong chromatic contradiction: the green, cold color, became the light or Yang and the red one, warm color, became the shadow or Yin.

Next, the idea of the positive and negative, feminine and masculine, of good and evil was revealed in his mind so that, little by little, this duality, as a Leitmotiv, was the one that directed the rest of the self-portraits, which make up this small suite of paintings. Gradually the Yin and Yang concept took more and more importance and the series continued to further reinforce the contrasts. Yang, as a light, the active form, sky and dragon, became absolutely white and Yin, in three pictures in the series, became red. Later, in other two paintings, the Yin became green in one and blue in the other.

From October 2009, I started for a period of three months two stays, one in Beijing and the other in Berlin, which moved me away from the workshop.

I fear that, on returning, the series would not have continuity due to the break cause by the distance that shadowed my spirit. Fortunately, this was not the case and the drive that followed me on the way back was exactly the same as it was at the time of moving away from the workshop.

The finished series is made up of 10 self-portraits, three of which are in large format: 162 cm x 130 cm. It should be added that, despite considering the dual concept of Yin and Yang, the series was constructed under purely artistic aspects and never conceptualized to other values.

YIN YANG SELF-PORTRAIT 2009 - 2010

The notion of Yin and Yang comes from Chinese philosophy, although we also find it in Eastern philosophy in general. It is a principle that explains the duality of everything that exists in the universe The Yin, darkness and femininity, the Yang, clarity, masculinity, are the phase of the Tao that means principle in all religions and philosophies. It is the way or universal law.

Notice the warm color, Yang, which is orange contrasting with the green, cold color, Yin. Orange and green are complementary colors. They are colors that in the optical mixture give white. The white of the hair helps to reinforce the contrast of Yin and Yang.

I have not left the background black, and to give it the same treatment as the whole I have given it some blue tones with brushstrokes.

Don't be passive by looking at this portrait. Analyze it following my explanations.

2009 / Yin-Yang, Selfportrait.

Oil on canvas glued on wooden board / 36 cm x 28 cm

Autoretrats Yin Yang, 2010

2009 / Yin-Yang, Selfportrait.

Oil on canvas glued on wooden board / / 36 cm x 28 cm

Do not look in this series of portraits for realistic images that you can find in some of my other works.

Try to see the plastic values that I have given to these works and be, as spectators, an important part of the work. Without you the work would have no meaning.

In this portrait, the Yin has been achieved with a warm color, orange. It is the white with the Yang that by its luminosity grants the values that I have achieved in the Yin.

Even the background on the left, blue and for contrast, helps the orange to be bright. It is the whiteness of the hair that separates the red background from the right side.

The Yin and the Yang are the essence of the Tao. This implies that nothing exists in a pure state or in absolute stillness, but that everything is continuously transformed; the only existing reality is change. For example, any idea can be considered as its opposite if you look at it from another point of view or, still, every idea will end up becoming or beating its opposite. This idea is what allowed me to work, in this painting, so that orange, a warm color, made up the shadow part of the face, determining Yin.

The Yin and Yang symbol has its roots in Taoism, a Chinese religion and philosophy. Yin is associated with shadows, femininity. Yang represents light, brightness, passion.

Yin and Yang constitute the existence of two opposite, but complementary forces, essential forces in the universe.

I have again used two complementary colors, green and orange, to achieve the duality of Yin and Yang.

Both the background and the clothes, in order to allow the strength of the green and orange, have been worked with gray and blue, neutral colors.

2009 / Yin-Yang, Selfportrait. Oil on canvas / 81 cm x 65 cm

Autoretrats Yin Yang, 2010

Again, I've used two complementary colors here, but the warm color has become the shadow, the Yin, and the cool color, the green, has become the Yang.

Although it could not have been so, in the vast majority of portraits the white has remained constant in the hair.

The background usually goes unnoticed as it is not the important part of the work. Notice, however, that it has been worked with a certain chromatic sensitivity. It is a neutral color, but chromatically rich.

2009 / Yin-Yang, Selfportrait. Oil on canvas / 81 cm x 65 cm

Phrases that arise from Yin and Yang.

With the darkness, the Yin, the stars break out, with the light, the Yang, it becomes the way.

Light and dark are balanced. Masculinity with femininity.

We understand equality through inequality. Femininity for masculinity.

Yang: Masculine, fire, mind, passion. Yin: Heart, love, sensitivity, balance.

2010 / Yin-Yang, Selfportrait. Oil on canvas / 100 cm x 81 cm

Autoretrats Yin Yang, 2010

2010 / Yin-Yang, Selfportrait. Oil on canvas / 100 cm x 81 cm

According to Yin and Yang each being, object or thought is a unit composed of two facets or forces; each thing has a complement on which it depends in order to exist and which, at the same time, is within itself.

These two forces are dynamic, attracting (when they are of opposite nature) and repelling (when they are of the same nature) constantly. This implies that nothing exists in a pure state or in absolute stillness, but that everything is continuously transformed; the only existing reality is change.

For example, any idea can be considered as its opposite if you look at it from another point of view, or still, every idea will eventually become or give birth to its opposite.

In this portrait, as in the previous one, duality reappears thanks to the contrast between orange and white.

The duality in this portrait is achieved with white and blue.

Notice that, unlike the other portraits, touches of red have been given to the face in order to chromatically enrich the portrait.

In order to differentiate chromatically from the face, the hair has not been painted white.

2010 / Yin-Yang, Selfportrait. Oil on canvas / 100 cm x 81 cm

Autoretrats Yin Yang, 2010

I leave it to you as spectators to make all the reflections, while looking at and analyzing this portrait.

Notice in this portrait, as well as in the others, the treatment I have given to the eyes.

This, like the two following portraits, has been worked on in large dimensions, reaching 162 cm in height.

Observing the portraits directly from nature, the dimensions generate certain sensations. The viewer is faced with a work of dimensions that requires him to distance himself in order to have absolute visual control of the painting.

2010 / Yin-Yang, Selfportrait. Oil on canvas / 162 cm x 130

Yin is the centrifugal, expansive force, source of silence, calm, cold and darkness. Yang is the centripetal, constraining force that produces sound, heat, light.

These two concepts allow the All to manifest thanks to the contrast: if the whole universe were blue, this color would be inconceivable, just as black (the absolute absence of colors) is only conceivable in relation to white (the presence of all colors), darkness in relation to lightness, winter in relation to summer.

The traditional character used to express Yin represents the cloudy north side of a mountain, darkness. The Yang represents the southern, sunny side of the mountain, the lightness.

2010 / Yin-Yang, Selfportrait. Oil on canvas / 162 cm x 130

Autoretrats Yin Yang, 2010

2010 / Yin-Yang, Selfportrait. Oil on canvas / 162 cm x 130

This is the last of the ten portraits in the series I have called "Yin-Yang Portraits"

Basically, in this painting, as in the previous one, white and blue have been used. Even in the hair these two colors have been used with certain nuances in order to differentiate it from the rest of the face.

Except for a small tent to the left of this portrait, the backgrounds of these last three paintings have been rendered completely black.

I have given you a lot of explanations about these ten portraits so that you can enjoy them deeply.

Before moving on to see the photographic series made on the portraits, I ask you, as viewers, to re-analyze the paintings with your own personal reflections. I will never get tired of saying that without a viewer there is no work of art. Art only achieves meaning in the viewer.

Yin Yang Self-Portrait, Photographic series 2010

At the end of April 2010, the artist reflected on the work that he traditionally gave as a present to the members of the Board of Trustees of the Rodríguez-Amat Foundation the day of the general meeting. For that reason, the artist created some photographic artwork from one of the paintings of this series of self-portraits. After having made a series of photographs from the self-portrait in white and red, he discovered that the simple texture of the pictorial matter of the painting manifested in detail great plastic values and he decided to start working with the computer on small photographic fragments of this painting.

In the painting that generated the photographic series, the color takes consistency in the large format, but in the small fragment the same color loses chromatic values. It was for this reason that some color changes were necessary, since the artist considered that the photographic series did not have to be a simple reproduction of a fragment of the self-portrait, but that it had to take its own values and, like a work of art, it had to be independent of the self-portrait that generated it.

It was presented in the form of a folder, limiting the number of photographs in each series to seven, a mythical and sacred number and with a total of 10 series or folders.

All photographs have the same format 2010 / Series detail Yin-Yang Red-White.

Self-portrait / Photograph / 16 cm x 22 cm

Autoretrats Yin Yang, 2010