STAA Jose-Maria Cundin exhibit opens April 14 in Covington

Published: Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 6:00 AM

 By Linda Dautreuil 

What is revealed by a title? The answer is plenty, especially when considering the paintings of Jose-Maria Cundin. A native of the Basque region of Spain, Cundin settled in Folsom by way of Bogata, Columbia; New York; and New Orleans, with extended stays in Paris, Belgium and Mexico.

Considering his adept use of language, there are few words to capture the complexity of Cundin’s visual expression, so we look to his words for clues. Take, for example, the title of his upcoming exhibition presented by the St. Tammany Art Association, “The Basque Syndrome (An Impertinent Selection of Works),” April 14 through May 5. The display includes approximately 20 of his most recent paintings. A preview reception for the artist in advance of Spring for Art officially opens the exhibition on Saturday from 6 - 9 p.m., 320 N. Columbia St., Covington.

First-hand viewing is the best way to experience the impact of the brilliant color palette Cundin achieves, mixing pure pigments with binding mediums. His fidelity to hand-mixing allows him to refine and modulate colors as he builds compositions unique to his process and style. Both color and composition advance the expressiveness of his conceptual themes.

Cundin builds an arrangement of overlapping shapes while balancing unexpected color relationships, working with dimensions as large as 60” x 80” or as small as 6” by 8”. Awareness of how gesture must change without force or contrivance, and the ability to expand or contract his applications appropriate to scale is an area of mastery for Cundin. It looks easy, but not every artist is as successful in sustaining a continuum of expression in both small, intimate paintings, and heroic, larger than life-size works.

There is also the conundrum of “living here, and being from there,” as well as phrases such as “the impertinent selection of work,” chosen because the content is pertinent, all evidence of the artist’s curious combination of dualities, both mysterious and revealing.

Cundin’s Basque heritage and his full engagement with the human condition is expressed in exotic titles such as “The Transit of Gargantua through Bilbao”; “Creature with a Phenomenal RH Factor”; “Urdangarin and Partner Planning a Juicy Business Operation”; or “Dr. Javier Franco Bilbao Announces a New Forensic Identification System.” They are unexpected words, if one does not factor in Cundin’s particular kind of wit.

Intelligent and direct, his sense of humor allows breathing room for discourse on a variety of topics. Where Jose-Maria Cundin is concerned, titles are pieces of the truth, a mystery he seeks to decipher through painting. Titles come to him relative to what he is thinking. For those wishing to engage by following the clues in his titles like bread crumbs, there is much to discover about culture from an artist who has lived among many; there is much to learn about politics, from a man who is passionate in his observations as well as realistic about the current state of affairs in his native Basque country; and there is much to discover about humor, and how it eases the sharp edges of truth, and visual art as an examination, a confession of sorts.

It has been said of Cundin that in spite of his many travels, he never lost the spirit, soulfulness and tragic romanticism of his homeland in the Basque country. His philosophy that art should be accessible and integrated with life comes together in his references to history, biography and the current state of affairs. In speaking of the prelude to his spring exhibition, Cundin states, “For some time I have been considering (or plotting) a show of works with a central concern in the consistencies and irrelevancies of life in the Basque country. The invitation for a show at the St. Tammany Art Association has created the occasion and supplied me with the stimuli necessary to put together thematically and creatively such a project.”

His voice is low with an accent that has remained with him for three quarters of century as he discusses his current work: “These paintings could be my Rosetta Stone (forgive me this exaggeration), the convenient tool in the deciphering of one of the greatest mysteries upon the Earth; one that even the National Geographic Magazine admitted was beyond their editorial possibility. It should be understood that my attempt at exposing this mystery is an attempt to pinpoint with color and orderly compositions the factuality and nuances of Basque life today. “

Jose-Maria’s Cundin’s home and studio in Folsom bear evidence of his philosophy that art is meant to be close to us, not remote or distant, always emotionally accessible.

His environment, both the natural landscape and the interior living and working spaces, indicate life dedicated to art in many forms, photographs from early days as a young artist working in the landscape, hand-made instruments designed and created by the artist, documents of his extensive career and international presence, tapestries, interactive sculptures, and paintings, large and small, covering almost every wall, spilling onto carefully placed stacks arranged rather than hung.

Here intelligent consideration of the present feeds conceptual content in the continuing expansion and expression of his life’s work.