EXPOSICION SCOTIABANK PERU

From the figurative style, this painter evolved to reach the abstract stage in which he presently is, thanks to the complex and long research process he developed from the questions that move this artist, lover of Incan culture, and especially, of its architecture, as well as of the shapes and peculiarities of its constructions. But, Simeón Gonzáles marks a style which is his own. In his extensive work, he approaches a variety of tendencies and even makes certain hues his, as these mark his last works´ abstract and suggestive language.

His first and early works denote a clear expressionist style. The angular strokes are the outer expression of this artist´s inner necessity, as he creates shapes, which means he is alive. What is fascinating is that this painter, at the young age of 15, which is very early for an artist, already communicated in his paintings, power, emotional intensity and mysticism expressed in a brutal way. Without a doubt, the social difficulties he was suffering from at that time, are reflected on his canvases. Impressionism, a current that stands out in Simeón Gonzáles´ painting, continuously appears, in a subtle and harmonic way, mixed with the other tendencies. The concern for light, from the vibrant luminous frames, to the poetical Andean landscapes, marks the work of Gonzáles Ayquipa who paints with an astounding ease, vision and light, at the same time as he faces the pause mechanics´ problem which he implicitely takes to study.

Simeón is a painter who depicts the reality in which he has been and is immersed; his country´s reality and that of Latin America, aws he translates his historical moment´s intellectual and social concepts, as well as his culture´s philosophical transformations, facing reality in a different way. The great part about it all, is that he also has been able to transpass this figurative art, to reach high levels of abstraction, which, nonetheless, are suggestive and charged with colors and strength.

If the Renaissance architect felt pride in dominating space and the Baroque painter had managed to “master” it within the frame of a canvas, Simeón demonstrates with his painting that space is not as it may seem, but rather a much more complex curvilinear reality and that a whole mysterious world hides behind the somatic layers. He makes every effort to dive into the depths of human habits, to reveal melancholy. Indeed, this artist knows the complexity of matter in such a way that he manages to take it to the canvas with subtlety and wrapped in a suggestive atmosphere.