Bajada al agua

"Twenty years is nothing" (*) Year 2018

Whoever reads these lines probably does not know that Abel Fernández is from Mendoza. And in truth that condition of origin would not have any importance for the purposes of this exhibition if it were not because that "being from Mendoza" places his work in a recognizable territory, and outlines his belonging to a school that has given other artists such as Carlos Alonso or Luis Scafati, to name two of the greats.

Abel Fernandez's striking, subtle, blurred, suggestive drawing line is the daughter of that school, and is the first element of his work that provokes deep admiration. About 25 years ago, when he made his first exhibition in Río Cuarto, the subtlety ofthat loose line showed a forceful capacity to load the figures with drama.

That impressive essential faculty, to which he adds the naturalness with which he works various materials and supports, then subordinated color as a surviving element, although used with careful adaptation to its expressive purpose. But the Abel Fernandez of this exhibition, makes him advance to the foreground, and without becoming a colourist, he adds to his baggage a palette that, although not very wide, is indeed overwhelmingly expressive.

By calling this exhibition "20 Years is nothing", an obvious allusion to "Volver", the famous tango by Gardel and Le Pera, the artist makes more than a numerical reference to his prolonged absence from the exhibition halls: since his series ("Tango y Músicos", "Los Cóndores", "Las Frutas" - dead natures, "Bailarinas y nudes" and "Que se commission el otro" (originated in the wonderful "Los Niños Primero" time), they revisit images of the past, the title is almost an ironic resource. Because, 20 years later, Abel Fernandez not only continues to be the remarkable artist he was then, but these "remodeling", these "retouching", these "revisions" allow us to experience the splendid empowerment of your creative condition. So this exhibition that you admire, instead of staging that return with withered forehead to which tango alludes, shows it fully, and with a shocking enrichment of his faculties of always.

Text of the presentation of the journalist and critic Ricardo Sánchez

(*) "Twenty years is nothing" is the name of Abel Fernandez's exhibition, inaugurated on November 9, 2018 at Casa de la Cultura Córdoba, in the City of Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina

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