Sin título

In this untitled lithograph from 1998 Julia Navarrete's mastery of the symbolic language of abstraction is evident. The 'structural geometric presence' that the critic Jorge Villacorta writes about is seen here as the paper is virtually divided in vertical registers across which geometric form, almost three dimensional and cubistic, moves across from left to right. In the work of this period the artist rediscovers geometry and reintroduces colour, in this case, in the pale blue of the upper part of the image.

Another critic, Silvio de Ferrari, discusses her work from 1998, saying: 'the theme was space: the geometry of volumes with their own properties and a humanization of agitated forms in wavelike wrapping movement... [There was in the work] a memory, a nostalgia that could be found in futurism. The predominance of the vertical was an important form, and despite its density... it is a firm line. In the 'cosmos' [of her work]... one can observe how the horizontal planes animated and structured the vertical axis to join and integrate the wide special scheme. The artist approaches with her body, movement, spirit, and fabric.'

In 1993, in a rare interview, Navarrete says of her working process, 'I am interested in the dynamic the work emanates and which is like life, always in movement... It is the process of life that always offers differing paths, different possibilities ... I try to have a dialogue with the work: I fight it, I love it, I hate it. ' This work in its intimate scale denotes a spiritual undertaking, one of reflection, where the viewer can get lost in the lines and subtle geometric forms that seem to recede under and above the layers of beiges and browns and blacks that predominate and the lighter blue of the top of the print.

Maya Luna

References

De Ferrari, Silvio, 'En el principio y en el fin de la pintura', in Expresso, August 1998.

Villacorta, Jorge, Julia Navarrete: Premio Teknoquímica 2002, Centro Cultural Peruano Norteamericano, 2003.