Landscape-Objects

By Javier Hernando Carrasco

The type of material and the creative processes involved do not determine final artistic quality; thus, something formed from the most impoverished, basic materials can radiate intense poetry, whilst another produced using recognised techniques and the highest quality materials can lack even the slightest whisper of art. It was in the twentieth century when pottery, in many cases, began to take on an artistic quality beyond the mere production of functional objects which had been its purpose for centuries, although its continuing association with the most typical form, the pot, considerably restricted its development. Nevertheless, certain artists working with this media have explored in depth its expressive possibilities and have brought about a definitive change in the typological canon –the ceramic pot– transforming it so that it becomes a pliable, expressive form. The work of José Antonio Sarmiento falls within this dynamic.

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His use of the Japanese anagama-noborigama kiln has played a large part in the development of his work, as the slow firing means that the process becomes almost the dominant feature but at the same time allows him to generate expressive surface movement, and approach each piece as if it were a sculpture, carved and perfected again and again. In his recent collection, Reversibles, the pieces take on flat forms, as if they were tables, with generally irregular edges which make them physically reversible, as is indicated by the title. A highly systematic approach can be appreciated in the formal definition, and in the very execution of these pieces; a systematic approach which in the end is inseparable from the process of potting, dictated to a greater or lesser extent by the mechanics of the potter’s wheel, although in the case of this collection by José Antonio Sarmiento, the wheel has not intervened. Here, the control exercised is the result of what could be called the logic of design: flat, square or rectangular structures which rise a few centimetres above the surface, supported by small cups which in some cases, above all in the case of the black pieces, are replaced by perpendicular segments. Thus, the Reversibles take on an unmistakeably sculptural air.

But the very regularity of their formal definition is immediately shattered by the author in order to infuse each piece with a high measure of expressiveness and movement. To achieve this, he breaks the linear nature of the sides, and in some cases cracks the interior surface to the extent of creating hollows, drained by those emptied by space. In addition, he creates “shadows” on the surface; for example through the use of the imprint left by seashells used to support the sheet during firing. In this way, the smooth brilliance of the surfaces, bathed in a black or white glaze, becomes an opportunity for expression, subtly altered at the same time as it witnesses the process of elaboration.

The rupture with geometric logic in these small tables, the serrated edges and the pictorial quality of their smooth surfaces are no more than a prolongation of the artist’s continuing desire to express, through the piece, a subjectivity which is closely related to the physical fact of the evolution and transformation of a pliable material shaped by its contact with fire. It could be said in this respect that the artist positions himself within similar creative parameters as those adopted by abstract expressionist painters, bearing in mind that whilst these pieces exhibit not a few pictorial connotations, their three dimensional nature gives them, above all, a sculptural quality. Their monumental dimension is not, therefore, difficult to appreciate, as it is not only the result of their size, but also of their capacity to seem to expand beyond their physical limits.

It is not easy to conceive of a reversible object of art. Few artists have dared to take on the challenge. Even those who have dispensed with a determined orientation in the elaboration of their work, that is to say, who have tried to avoid the usual perspective (for example, the most typical works by Jackson Pollock), have ended up seeking an orientation which is more favourable to a reading of their work. José Antonio Sarmiento’s pieces are completely reversible, not only because they declare their wish to be viewed from two different angles, but also because their sense, expressive and conceptual capacity is fully realised from both. They respond effectively to this approach: comprising two senses in one, unfolding their range of suggestions.

In fact, when we look at them, supported by their appendices the cups, which remit totally to traditional pottery, they suggest, as I have said above, a table structure, a smooth spatial fragment which displays small, occasional and poetic accidents. But when we reverse their position they become platforms for small sculptures, reminiscent of sculptural compositions from the 50s and 60s –Alberto Giacometti, for example– which even appeared in the field of architecture. Think of the rectangle which comprises the UN building, and which supports the organisation’s three main buildings. In José Antonio Sarmiento’s rectangular surfaces, the cups become upright feet, almost pilotis corbuseanos, when they support the platform; and corporeal forms when, after inverting the platform, they stand out on the surface. But they can also be interpreted as landscape representations, an interpretation which merely serves to reinforce the links with the artist’s previous collections. Fragmented landscapes reduced and presented on a scale which is reminiscent of flat expanses, almost without a horizon in one case, and of areas with vegetational and/ or artificial irruptions in the other. In conclusion, these pieces, alive with artistic expression and, there is no doubt, the fruits of a consolidated craftsmanship and a creative talent, bring to ceramics a highly intense measure of lyricism, rising up as true landscape-objects.

June, 2007

Javier Hernando Carrasco is professor of Art History at the University of León, art critic, exhibition curator and member of the Advisory Committee for the MUSAC Collection (Castilla-León, León; Spain).

Related link:

• Additional information about José Antonio Sarmiento