12/26/2024
“Looking at José Angel Vincench’s geometric abstractions, one can’t help being stunned by their luminosity—the light inherent in their gold, the most precious of all minerals, all the more so because of its symbolic import—and their innovative, idiosyncratic geometry. Gold is universally regarded as a sacred material, a symbol of transcendence, like the sun that rises above the earth it shines on. We cannot live without its miraculous light, and we value gold because it is imbued with that light. It is a peculiarly abstract material, a sort of immaterial material like light. Gold is the most malleable of metals; working with gold leaf, as Vincench does, is to bend light to one’s aesthetic and expressive purpose. Vincench rises to the sun, as Icarus did, but unlike Icarus he does not fall, nor burn himself as he touches its light: it represents his idealism—the idealism of Cuba, of socialism, the glory of its Communist revolution, its anti-capitalism, even though, paradoxically, capitalism treasures gold, claims to have the Midas touch that turns everything into gold, presumably for the benefit of everyone, as Cuba’s socialism presumably is. As Vincench writes, “gold is about obsessions of power and economy”—power over the economy gives one political power, and with that emotional—“spiritual”—power. Thus the paradoxical doubleness of Vincench’s gold: it represents Cuba’s socialist idealism—and ideal climate, alive with flourishing nature and tropical sunlight—and capitalist idealism, evident in its pursuit of gold. Capitalism values entrepreneurial individualism, socialism values communal effort, each convinced that their values will produce a new Golden Age for humankind. “
- Ironical Gold: José Angel Vincench’s Conceptual Abstraction by Donald Kuspit
📖Read full text: https://www.josevincench.com/word-ironical-gold-jose-angel-vincenchs-conceptual-abstraction-by-donald-kuspit
📸 pictured:
(1) Pinctura de Accion VII, 2016, Gold leaf on linen, 300 x 135 x 6 cm
(2) Pintura de Accion (Patria), Gold leaf on canvas, 98 x 147 cm
(3) El peso de las palabras (Exile), Gold leaf on wood, 20 x 7 x 4 cm
