German Rubiano MAC 2001

 

As usual, a Lucas Posada G. exhibit is surprising because of its scope, vigor and inconformity. When this artist delves into his work, he apparently does so without great difficulty, as if everything flowed effortlessly. The images he gives shape to are  vehement, almost rude, and make it obvious that the painter does not hide his discomfort with things going on, nor his alteration, nor his desire to express that we are choking, that we have no words, that communication fails us.
Lucas belongs to that important tradition of the late XIXth Century, which has an obviously illustrious history in the use of shape – drawing, color, impasto -  to convey ideas, feelings and emotions that words cannot say because they always fall short. A tradition that begins with Van Gogh, Munch and Schiele and reaches the numerous uneasy of to-day, including many who no longer paint but whose work goes beyond the traditional arts.
This large exhibit shows not only Lucas’ most recent work, where our attention is drawn by the painted sculptures or rather by the acrylics on ceramic supports, three dimensional  renderings of his tortured and colorful world, but also a repertoire of several paintings from previous exhibitions. The over all result is coherent. Although the characters and themes are varied, as are the brush strokes used, the paintings show a style that became unmistakably personal long ago; a style that is strong and expressive.
Over the last few weeks we have seen in Bogotá several art shows that reflect in different ways the perturbed Colombian reality. We have seen impoverished and worn-out abstract works; works that are increasingly catastrophic references to our ship-wreck and which portray forests laden with foreboding. Now, Lucas Posada’s acrylics introduce the tortured and howling characters that were missing; they are most probably brothers to the countless ones we have seen in recent years.

Germán Rubiano Caballero
Bogotá, July, 2001