Of Melancholic Slabs and Voyeuristic Chairs
By Eva del Llano Rodríguez
Chairs, colonial slabs, the female nude, and the timeless and metaphysical space seem to be constant elements in Ángel León Valiente’s paintings. He appeals to diverse fantasies, in many cases somewhat surreal in midst of elements from mutually strange realities. He decides to search for human emotions and conflicts by recreating poetic atmospheres to arouse the spectator’s sensibility. A unifying characteristic of his work emerges in the reception: the calmness enhanced by estrangement and mysticism.
If speaking of young art, one of the trends we could mention would have to do with introspection. The current scenario of contemporary Cuban art, unlike previous decades, has eluded the commitment with or thematic concern for sociological issues and has shifted towards intimacy: from social to personal. According to his academic training -in San Antonio de los Baños, of strong drawing tradition- and with the sensitivity of his generation, Ángel León Valiente creates pieces that gloat over aesthetic pleasure, with good technical work and delight in figuration.
However, it does not remain in the simple admiration of colors and forms. The slab image, integrated into the scenes, is immediately associated with the deteriorated floors in the houses of Centro Habana and Old Havana, which date back to colonial domestic architecture. Thus, it can be considered an imagery of the interiors and ordinary places that we Cubans have inhabited. As a sign of the past, but at the wrong time in everyday life, it seems to be a nostalgic motivation.
The tendency to the temporary dissolution and to provoke introspection in the spectator stands out as normal element in his production. The work Dentro (Inside) represents a couple with heads against each other, while a bridge drawn from both ends is interrupted in the center. Reference is made here to the union that should exist in a couple’s relationship, which does not end, but is in constant projection.
The chair he presents is also similar to the ones that make up the traditional Cuban furniture. But in his case it becomes ambiguous and metaphorical. No one sits on it; however, it participates in humanized actions. We see it with a human heart, or rather as a spectator in a chaos of chairs that emerge from the irreverent sea (Como los peces – Like Fish). Or it is present in his nude scenes, either participating of the female company or as voyeur of her voluptuousness (My Ghosts Series), in a fusion of flesh and stone that subverts the material and turns it erotic.
The Weight of Reason (El peso de la razón) represents a torn chair right in the area that contains a human heart, which is exposed. Other chairs pile on top of it until forming an irregular column that struggles for balance and is held in levitation above the clouds. A totally surreal image. The title proposes reasons for the inconsistency. In the attempt to balance, we discern a relation to reason; and on the other hand, the sentimental sphere is evoked by the instability, the levitation metaphor and the heart as emblem par excellence of emotions. A coexistence and struggle between opposite areas of human expression.
The redundancy in the chair and slab motifs ends up becoming the idiolect of the young artist, committed at all times with transmitting personal emotions and reflecting on his own concerns about the human condition. His works are introspective rituals in which his individuality and the attempt to create a link and emotionally associate with the viewer are perceived as latent. Not for nothing we consider the slabs melancholic and the chairs voyeuristic.
