Artist’s Statement
REMEMBRANCE OF THE EXHIBIT “JACOB AND HIS TWELVE SONS” BY ZURBARAN
This narrative reflects my efforts with veracity and accuracy:
The poet Ruben Dario, in his autumnal sonnet to the Marques of Bradomin (an old ‘friend’ of mine), states that the character came to his mind by the effect of an “unconscious cerebration”. I claim a similar phenomenon (I wish I had more of these!)
In January of 2023 I finished a group of sculptures which I have titled: The Persistent Nostalgia for Still Life, consisting of twelve (again) metaphysical bibelots in polychrome epoxy resin. At the conclusion of this project, I was ready to reassume work at the easel. The disengagement from the three-dimensional mode and going to a flat plane required a subtle procedure, like sketching. The result of this effort was a collection of drawings, out of which I selected thirteen items that immediately provoked in me ponderings on the inconvenience of this number (twelve will always be better for me) and it was then when the mental antic previously mentioned - the Unconscious Cerebration – took effect and I recalled the formidable exhibit, Jacob and His Twelve Sons by Francisco Zurbaran at the Meadows Museum in Dallas, TX, November, 2017. An extraordinary event that we had the great pleasure of witnessing.
My work, certainly a humble homage to the great Baroque Maestro, relies on the impressions and perceptions of a formal nature rather than a subjective interpretation of the historical context. Therefore, I don’t allude myself any foray into the Biblical exegesis of the subject. My paintings pretend to be a reflection of the Pomp and Circumstance produced in the Sevillian atelier of Zurbaran for the benefit of a Grand Theme.
- José-Mariá Cundín
P.S. You will notice while viewing the works that I have solved my numeral prejudices by placeing Jacob and his youngest son Benjamim, together in one painting. Eureka! Twelve at last!
Born in the Basque Country of northern Spain in 1938, Cundin was influenced by painters native to his homeland, among them Augustin and Ramon Zubiauarre, José Maria de Ucelay, and Genaro Urrutia. He lived and painted in France, Belgium, Colombia, and New York City before settling in New Orleans in the mid-1960s, later teaching art and exhibiting in Mexico and Spain, with critically acclaimed shows in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, and Vitoria-Gasteiz. His works are held in important private, corporate, and museum collections throughout Europe and the Americas, including the Museo de Bellas Artes (Bilbao, Spain), New Orleans Museum of Art, Artium Museum (Vitoria, Spain), Museo de Antioquia (Medellín, Colombia), and Johnson & Wales University (Providence, Rhode Island).
PRESS RELEASE
Callan Contemporary is pleased to present Remembrance of the Exhibit “Jacob and his Twelve Sons” by Zurbarán, a dialogue between a contemporary Spanish-born artist, José-Maria Cundin, and a 17th Century Spanish painter, Francisco de Zurbarán. Cundin, born in the Basque Country in 1938, is a brilliant colorist whose instantly recognizable style integrates Baroque, modernist, and postmodern idioms. Zurbarán, born in 1598 in the province of Badajoz, was a preeminent figure during the Golden Age of Seville. These Spanish masters, separated by three-and-a-half centuries, come together in the current exhibition thanks to a special showing of Zurbarán’s work at the Meadows Museum in Dallas in 2017. Cundin saw that show, featuring exquisite pseudo portraits of the Biblical figure Jacob and his sons, and remembered it in 2023 as he began a new series of his own paintings. He experienced what Nicaraguan poet Rubén Dario called “an unconscious cerebration”–an exquisite, subliminal inspiration or insight.
“My work, certainly a humble homage to the great Baroque maestro," explains Cundin, "relies on the impressions and perceptions of a formal nature rather than a subjective interpretation of the historical context. Therefore, I don’t allude myself any foray into the Biblical exegesis of the subject. My paintings pretend to be a reflection of the pomp and circumstance produced in the Sevillian atelier of Zurbarán for the benefit of a grand theme.”
The conceptual sophistication, literary sensibility, and gentle wit in these paintings flow dually from the artist’s proud Basque heritage and the cosmopolitanism of his international travels. Influenced by the artists of his homeland—among them Augustin and Ramon Zubiauarre, José Maria de Ucelay, and Genaro Urrutia—Cundin eventually lived and painted in France, Belgium, Colombia, and New York City; taught art in Mexico and Spain; and exhibited to critical acclaim in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, and Vitoria-Gasteiz. He settled in New Orleans in the mid-1960s and has, for many years, created his remarkable paintings and sculptures in his studio in Folsom. His works are held in important private, corporate, and museum collections in Europe and the Americas, including the Museo de Bellas Artes (Bilbao, Spain), Artium Museum (Vitoria, Spain), Museo de Antioquia (Medellín, Colombia), New Orleans Museum of Art, and Johnson & Wales University (Providence, Rhode Island).
In this auspicious pairing of a contemporary virtuoso with an icon of the Spanish Baroque, differences of artistic periods and styles yield to mysterious, unexpected parallels in color, form, figure/ground relationship, and the underlying affinity of two Iberian mark-makers communicating across time. As always, Cundin’s paintings are guided by his intellectual curiosity, profound knowledge of art history, and the exhilarating, virtuosic complexity of his paintings.