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By
The Light Of The Volcano: THE
PAINTINGS OF JOSE CANENCIA
By EDWIN DANIELS
Balanced
before me are two wooden komakali, Tarahumara game balls carved from
the root of an oak tree. They are used in rarjiparo, a competition favored
by the men of the Tarabumara in which the balls are kicked cross-country
using the front of the feet. The game can last up to two days and the
first to arrive at the goal, a landmark that can be as far away as several
hundred kilometers, is designated the winner.
The two komakali sitting on my desk are similar in that each ball's
circumference begins with a divot, an imperfection in the wood that
provided the carver with a guide to help him create a splicrc. The balls
are dense and organic and both bear the distinct markings of the carver's
hand and tool. Their surfaces are scooped and lashed in patterns of
ordered chaos as if created, like planets, by the vagaries of space.
But there is also a profound difference between these simple game balls,
a disparity that speaks of a history beyond the wood and the hand and
the game. One ball is raw and precise as if carved merely hours ago.
But the other is worn, soiled and scarred, and the shadows cast by the
torchlight that once illuminated the nighttime raceway still seem to
flicker across its skin.
Such is the nature of the paintings of Jose' Canencia, at once fresh
and clean and with the masterhand of the craft clearly in evidence,
yet ancient and mysterious, emerging from the penumbra of a life long
lived and fully embraced. Canencia's canvases seem to appear out of
a wild darkness. Their lights, focused for only a moment on the faces
of the Tarahumara, grace the surface swiftly then drag the brilliance
of scarlet or ruby or viridian into shadow.
The work appears figurative at first glance but the figures, caught
mid-movement, remain as mysterious as their actions. This narrative
ambiguity signals a departure from traditional representation and sets
the work apart from the bulk of Native American portraiture saturating
the southwestern market. But it is Canencids masterful gesture that
propels the paintings into the realm of high art.
"The inspiration comes from the expression of forms, shapes and
colors," reveals Canencia. "I'm not especially concerned
with anecdotal aspects but I do care very much about aesthetics.
For that
reason I don't bother much about my figures performing something of
any sort. They are just what they suggest."
The artist's own narrative, on the other hand, is rich in anecdote
and performance. Born Jose' Luis Canencia Arias, he began life in
Spain.
Canencia's family, landed gentry who bred cattle for the range and
the bullring, were persecuted by Franco's regime for their political
ideology
and opposition to the dictator. As a result his family immigrated to
Mexico shortly after the end of the Spanish Civil War.
"While landowners comprised one side of my family," explains
Canencia, "the other branch included artists such as my grandfather
who was a sculptor and musician. I believe I inherited my passion for
painting from him."
Canencia's love for the studio arts took him first to Mexico City where
he studied drawing and painting. But his desire to study the Classics
inevitably led him to Europe. He traveled back to Spain, pouring over
the works of Valezquez and El Greco, to Paris for the Impressionists
and on to the collection of Rembrants at the National Gallery in London.
But it was back home in his adopted country of Mexico, in the marketplace.,;
of Chihuahua City and the mountains of the Tarahumara, where his creativity
found its true voice.
"My eyes rejoice constantly in the beauty of the Tarahumara wrapped
in their colorful clothing," Canencia says of the people who populate
his paintings. "I find them in the streets of Chihuahua, in the
markets of Sisoguiche, Creel and Barrancas del Cobre. And in the caves
and cabins where they reside in the mountains."
Canencia is not the first Spaniard to venture into Mexico and discover
the engaging attributes of the Tarahumara. History indicates that the
Spanish encountered the Tarahumara throughout the Chihuahuan territory
upon arriving in the 1500s. But as the Spanish presence grew the Tarahumara
retreated into the remote canyons of the Sierra Tarahumara where they
have remained since. Their lives are simple and agrarian, and they have
been careful to retain their cultural characteristics including the
traditional clothing. Cloth headbands, often scarlet in color, are worn
with white cloth shirts and pants or wraparounds and are accented with
colorful prints, belts, woven accessories and sandals.
The Tarahumara call themselves Raramuri, a word in their native language
that means 'runners,' and it is for world class running that they
have
become legendary. It is this swiftness of movement that best illustrates
the symbolic in Canencia's paintings and one that makes way for the
greater
and more celebratory event-the movement of paint.
"I don't worry much about the symbolism of my paintings,"
explains Canencia. "I'd rather leave it to the observer to interpret
according to his own delight."
And delight is exactly what's in store for the viewer who ponders paintings
such as Volcano. Figures emerge as if walking close to a volcano fire,
illuminated by its reflection. The ground hemorrhages red with danger
yet Canencia swaths the figures in the soft, safe strokes of white.
In The Cave Canencia conjures a figure wrapped in the rich cloth of
firelight. Is she a storyteller? An apparition? "Darkness sprinkled
with illumination," Canencia tells us. She is this exactly and
in every sense of the phrase.
The Lieutenant, a piece of almost pure gesture, shows us a man in motion
as he turns toward the light. Canencia has placed something undefined
in his hands but the purity of the paint stroke overpowers any need
for definition. The delight that Canencia offers is in the imagining.
Canencia's
process is much like the chiaroscuro he paints. His canvases begin as
small, quick pencil sketches of fleeting figures in tile streets and
canyons. Canencia looks for forms in these sketches much like one looks
for the author of shadows in dark landscapes. Then he creates small
oil color 'essays' in which he searches for combinations and tones in
dark and light colors that please him. Once the preliminary elements
are established Canencia moves to the canvas and creates his work with
heavy, turpentine laden oil. While the sketches come fast and intuitively,
the painting evolves slowly and methodically.
"This final stage of the painting is a very important part of the
process," Canencia explains. "It allows me to stop and reflect
and then proceed with what I find necessary to do." Viewing Canencia's
work is, in a sense, much like allowing the eyes to adjust to the night
sky-patience leads to discovery. And as viewers will discover, the revelation
is definitely worth the wait.
"By The Light Of The Volcano: The Paintings of Jose Canencia" will
hang at Michael McCormick Gallery, 106-C Pasco del Pueblo Norte, through
May. 758-1372 or 800/279-0879. www.mccormickgallery.com.
TAOS
MAGAZINE March/April 2003
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