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Lot Essay
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Executed in 1974, Manuel Rivera's hauntingly beautiful Espejo para un son de campanas III is a curiously evocative dream-scape of the artist's imagining. Using a subtly sculptural framework Manuel Rivera has carefully created an illusionistic world, rooted in reality and memory. Complex layers of wire netting come together in Espejo para un son de campanas III to conjure an image that is evocative of mist, water, and landscape. Much of Rivera's work is inspired by his birth place of Granada, and more specifically, the nostalgic feelings it evokes in him. Speaking of the inspiration for his work, Rivera has said: 'the towers of the Alhambra, the enclosed patios, the gardens of underwater light, the plastered inlay etc.; the magic of all this, as seen through latticed windows, is present throughout my work' (M. Rivera quoted in J. Manuel Bonet, Manuel Rivera, Catálogo del Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, Fundación Juan March, Cuenca, reproduced at: https://www.march.es/arte/cuenca/coleccion/artistas/manuel-rivera.aspx?l =2).
One of the most important Spanish artists to emerge in the past fifty years, Rivera is credited with resituating modern Spanish art within the international scene following the devastation of the civil war. Pursuing similar goals to the American Abstract Expressionists, in the late 1950s Rivera moved away from figurative painting and traditional materials to develop his own unique method of working with metal. By building forms up from the background plane to give his work volume, Rivera found that he was able to create an illusion of depth and space while maintaining the formal simplicity that he so admired in abstraction, and which we find in this work.
Crafted by the artist by stretching wire and wire mesh across open or solid frames at different levels, Rivera referred to his work as paintings, rather than sculpture. Certainly, Espejo para un son de campanas III feels as free and expressive as a painting; the way in which subtly manipulated material plays with light and movement provides further depth and interest to the work without being restrictive. The word espejo (mirror) appears in the title of many of Rivera's works, and it is significant on several levels, drawing our attention to the shimmering, reflective surface of the work, which responds to the approach of the viewer. It also highlights the symmetry of the composition over the two panels. These qualities impart Espejo para un son de campanas III with an emotive sense of dynamism as light passes over the sculptural surface, for as the artist has suggested, he is 'not simply looking for a balance of form and color; I need something more; to begin with a lyrical idea or a pain; an emotion' (M. Rivera, quoted in text to accompany Manuel Rivera, Galeria Arnes y Ropke, 2009 - 2010 reproduced at: https://www.galeriaarnesyropke.com/).
Executed in 1974, Manuel Rivera's hauntingly beautiful Espejo para un son de campanas III is a curiously evocative dream-scape of the artist's imagining. Using a subtly sculptural framework Manuel Rivera has carefully created an illusionistic world, rooted in reality and memory. Complex layers of wire netting come together in Espejo para un son de campanas III to conjure an image that is evocative of mist, water, and landscape. Much of Rivera's work is inspired by his birth place of Granada, and more specifically, the nostalgic feelings it evokes in him. Speaking of the inspiration for his work, Rivera has said: 'the towers of the Alhambra, the enclosed patios, the gardens of underwater light, the plastered inlay etc.; the magic of all this, as seen through latticed windows, is present throughout my work' (M. Rivera quoted in J. Manuel Bonet, Manuel Rivera, Catálogo del Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, Fundación Juan March, Cuenca, reproduced at: https://www.march.es/arte/cuenca/coleccion/artistas/manuel-rivera.aspx?l =2).
One of the most important Spanish artists to emerge in the past fifty years, Rivera is credited with resituating modern Spanish art within the international scene following the devastation of the civil war. Pursuing similar goals to the American Abstract Expressionists, in the late 1950s Rivera moved away from figurative painting and traditional materials to develop his own unique method of working with metal. By building forms up from the background plane to give his work volume, Rivera found that he was able to create an illusion of depth and space while maintaining the formal simplicity that he so admired in abstraction, and which we find in this work.
Crafted by the artist by stretching wire and wire mesh across open or solid frames at different levels, Rivera referred to his work as paintings, rather than sculpture. Certainly, Espejo para un son de campanas III feels as free and expressive as a painting; the way in which subtly manipulated material plays with light and movement provides further depth and interest to the work without being restrictive. The word espejo (mirror) appears in the title of many of Rivera's works, and it is significant on several levels, drawing our attention to the shimmering, reflective surface of the work, which responds to the approach of the viewer. It also highlights the symmetry of the composition over the two panels. These qualities impart Espejo para un son de campanas III with an emotive sense of dynamism as light passes over the sculptural surface, for as the artist has suggested, he is 'not simply looking for a balance of form and color; I need something more; to begin with a lyrical idea or a pain; an emotion' (M. Rivera, quoted in text to accompany Manuel Rivera, Galeria Arnes y Ropke, 2009 - 2010 reproduced at: https://www.galeriaarnesyropke.com/).