3. Juni 2012 - New Ceramics

Enric Mestre is one of the preeminent
figures of Spanish contemporary ceramics.
Galerie Hélène Porée will be showing
some of his latest research in sculpture,
as well as rarely seen murals: Sobriety of
shapes, space density, and refinement of
colours.
Stability, culture, rigour, sensitivity.
Enric Mestre has built his lifetime work on
these four pillars.
Central to it is line, already present in
the first drawings. “Shape is for me an
interior longing. I look for the simplicity
which brings always back to the essential".
In large sketch pads covered with drawings
very similar to music lines, the artists
strains to elaborate his language, searching
for the right line with the point of the pencil,
this precise moment when the resonant
shape emerges. With a similar purpose,
Mondrian manipulated small squares of
painted paper, setting them together again
and again, until the vibration was finally
found, which was essential to his painting.
Since the middle of the 90s, the hieroglyphic
motives which were scribbled on
some monoliths sunk more and more towards
the inside, until they fully permeated
the volumes. These became at the
same time larger and more densified. By
mingling with the clay, the line gained in
proactive strength, and intensity. The attuned
shape triggers the awakening of the
surrounding space.
Even with relatively small volumes, Enric
Mestre's sculptures are monumental.
The mind wanders silently as if in a miniature
temple, attracted by the dark frame
of a door, the clarity of a light rectangle,
the square of a projected shadow, by a few
steps leading to a naked plateau. What
then is the vibrant mystery here, which
overwhelms us with the feelings of order,
clarity, quietness? Far from being only intellectual,
Enric Mestre's quest brings us
smoothly back towards “this unseen life
which is us". “Perfection without soul is
nothing", he says. His sculptures never
ceased to tend towards a strict but dense
essentiality, filled with a living tension.
No drought in their austerity. All his work
springs from this want to have reason and
sensitivity stick together.
The usage of clay takes on all its significance
here. When the hardness, solidity,
durability of stoneware could also stem
from another material, clay only allows for
these surface variations which soften the
shape. For Mestre, texture is the only decoration.
Being the piece's skin, it is part of
the body. From one plane to the other –
May / June 2012 NEW CERAMICS 45
ParIS
Enric Mestre Intuition for shape
over a sharp separating ridge which allows
the use of engobes – the eye and the hand
stroll from one rough space to a satin wall,
from a deep and multiple-hued colour tone
to a sharp white, or a blue, even to a red as
in recent works. Each face catches the light
differently.
Enric Mestre's work reflects a subtle implacability.
Each step of the making of a
sculpture is considered, carefully weighed.
Having selected the target shape, the artist
makes a small model in clay. Then a cardboard
pattern, used for making the slabs to
be assembled. The dried form, polished or
not, will be fired at 1280°C in heavy reduction.
The piece is then reviewed, reworked,
thrown back in the kiln as many times as
needed (sometimes 5 times!), until shape,
texture and colour express the initial idea
to the satisfaction of the artist.
Today, as it was already the case 50
years ago, Enric Mestre keeps going, attentive
to a demand which places him in front
of the unknown, in a progressive refinement
of the intention, towards the meditation
spaces, where, as Rothko used to say
“we can root and grow".
Pascale Nobécourt
top untitled, 35 x 26.5 x 27.5 cm, 2010
middle untitled, grès, engobes, glaze,
22 x 42 x 14 cm - 2006
below untitled, grès, 22 x 42 x 14 cm
Pascale nobécourt
galerie hélène Porée
14 June - 28 July, 2012
1, rue de l'odéon
75006 Paris, France
Tel.: +33 (0)1 43 54 17 00
www.galerie-helene-poree.com
exhIbITIon