Color, space, and a wonderful form of things and details of our world invite spectators to immerse themselves in the magical world of Miguel Ybañez’s imagination. We present paintings from the ample collection of contemporary European and world art of Gerard H. Meulensteen, the Dutch collector of art and founder of the Danubiana Museum of Modern Art. Miguel Ybañez places his canvasses on the floor of his studio. And in order to reach across them he needs a big brush with a long handle. His paintings catch your attention by the perspective solution of the space. The unstable focal point of the impermanent composition is the paradox. It is also the paradox of the spatial illusion of his paintings, when the close seems to be distant and the small seems to be enlarged. This content and visual tension in the painting process brings along the current meanings of the painting, expressed by an associative composition of forms and colors and aided by the artist’s peculiar style. Thus, also important for Ybañez is the interpretation of the atmosphere of the period and the Babylon of time with his intensive experiencing of reality. He naturally appropriates the means of expression that emphasize the explosive power of contrasting and brilliant colors. His expressive style and brushstrokes seem to stand out from the painting which opens up before us before disappearing into a tangle of bright and contrasting shades. However, he frequently covers them up or lightly paints over them, as if he had changed his mind and was not sure if he wanted to show us the selected motif at all. He also keeps his ideas and dreams under a spell in abundantly applied paints and lines which fulfill the almost cosmic space of the painting. Ybañez masters the surface of the canvas through three basic elements: color, form, and space. Color and form are perhaps relics of the civilization traces in this seemingly endless space. That is also why such approach is close to the expressive principles of creation, which instantly pull us into the artistic world of Miguel Ybañez.
Dagmar Kudoláni Srnenská
Miguel Ybáñez was born in 1946 in Madrid (ES). He lives and works in Amsterdam (NL) and Ampurdàn (ES). Ybáñez works in the tradition of Arte Povera and embraces a range of techniques to create works of varying scale and form. His reliefs, sculptures and assemblages are made of cloth, cardboard, metal, plaster and found objects. Miguel Ybáñez states that the essence of his work is to express the universal emotions that exist in our shared extra-dimensional space. He believes that this language without words is understood across cultures and sees his work as a conduit, a medium through which he can pass his ideas to future generations. During the course of his career, he has exhibited widely in Europe and South America. Solo exhibitions include the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Rio de Janeiro (BR); Museo de Arte Moderno de São Paolo (BR); Singer Museum in Laren (NL) and the Museo Español de Arte Contemporaneo Madrid (ES). Group exhibitions include GRIMM, New York, NY (US); Spanish Art Tomorrow, which travelled to the Bronx Art Museum, New York, NY (US), Corcoran Museum, Washington, D.C. (US) and Metropolitan Museum and Art Center, Miami, FL (US), among others.
