Irene Carlos or The Bluish Silence
by Antonio Ventura for And-Art Works Magazine
And then we contemplate the blue— a blue that contains many blues, a blue that resolves itself in silence. We could almost say it is a bluish silence. Yes, that blue— although it would be more accurate to say those blues, for they appear in many tonal variations, creating an atmosphere that envelops the viewer and requires the quietness that emanates from the painting and gently influences the gaze.
Offering, Murmurs, After the Harvest, Flower Light, Walkers— even the titles of the works reveal the essence of the universe that Irene Carlos has been shaping in the quiet of her studio, where perhaps, without her knowing it, silence itself dwelled, or perhaps a soft murmur—the same murmur that reaches the viewer when observing any of these paintings.
We enter small settings in which the forms relate to one another in balanced and orderly compositions. These settings follow a structure in which forms communicate and interact, and in which color brings harmony to the whole.
The boundaries of the painting are defined within this space governed by silence. It does not matter what reality the forms may evoke—whether a flower, a tree, or walking figures. The work enacted in this setting is always the same, yet always different. The colors, led by blue, adapt to the material that connects them, establishes their relationships, and creates an aesthetic landscape through which we can travel without fear of losing our way. Irene has defined a landscape full of precise nuances and visual suggestions that offer us an itinerary where beauty serves as the guide.
Just as Torrente Ballester said that an author always writes the same book, a painter— in this case, a woman painter— always traces the same painting. And this is one of the remarkable strengths of Irene Carlos’s work: we enter the same painting each time, yet that painting is always different.
And then, once again, we contemplate the blue— a blue that contains many blues. As in Offering, which encapsulates the aesthetic universe of this artist who, perhaps unknowingly, adds to her forms, colors, and materials one more subtle element: silence.
