Helena Almeida: 'Seduzir' [To Seduce, 2002] (detail)

Collection

Diafragma uno. Fase cuarta [Diaphragm One. Phase Four]

Image caption
JOSÉ MARÍA CRUZ NOVILLO

Diafragma uno. Fase cuarta [Diaphragm One. Phase Four]

  • 1993
  • Digital copy on paper (Diptych)
  • 214 x 148 cm
  • Cat. D_174
  • Acquired in 1993
By:
Isabel Tejeda

The Banco de España Collection has two works by José María Cruz Novillo: one three-dimensional, Untitled (1976), and the other two-dimensional, Diaphragm One. Phase Four (1993). Both are based on repetition of a module that activates and explores the perceptive capacity of the viewer.

Untitled is a relief made up of steel wedges, positioned at an angle to the vertical on which they are placed and creating a texturized surface in their multiple overlays. Like a distorting mirror, the wedges break the context into small fragments which they deconstruct and decompose, and produce a sort of space with cubist references, a jigsaw that changes depending on the angle from which the work is observed, to show different versions of the setting.

This repetition of the module can be seen again in Diaphragm One. Phase Four, an exhibition of the multiple possibilities of chromatic combinations offered by a circle divided into four parts. Pink, Naples yellow, orange and olive green structure the computer-generated work based on whole circles of colour divided into four parts, offering an exercise in systematised permutation. In this way, the piece demonstrates how different contrasts are generated depending on the juxtaposition of colours. In a way, the artist is transposing musical chords, combinations of three or more different notes to create a harmonic unit, to the visual language. In this work, José María Cruz Novillo depicts seventy chords created using four note/colours.

Isabel Tejeda

 
By:
Isabel Tejeda
José María Cruz Novillo
Cuenca 1936

José María Cruz Novillo studied at the School of Arts and Crafts of his hometown of Cuenca and during his youth, he was assistant to the sculptor José Navarro Gabaldón. In 1958, he moved to Madrid.

His visual art career is an ongoing exercise in exploring human perception. Using colour and mathematics, he designs pieces and situations in which the viewer completes the work. His Diaphragms, whose etymological meaning is interception, bring together simple and monochromatic elements starting from the circle and the line, where sound, photographs, etc. are added to develop synaesthetic pieces whose meaning arises from experience. For example, Decaphonic Diaphragms of Digits, at the Spanish National Statistics Institute (Madrid, 2008), offers multiple possible interpretations: each colour is equivalent to a digit that is turned into statistical data reflecting the extension of Spain, its population, the number of cities it contains, etc. However, apart from acting as a numerical code, the colours can also be translated into musical notes, turning the façade of the building into a type of stave ready to be interpreted.

Cruz Novillo is also a designer and has created the logos for some important private and public companies, media outlets, political parties and government institutions, including those of the PSOE [Spanish Socialist Party], Renfe, El Mundo newspaper, the Public Treasury, Repsol, etc., along with the last banknotes issued by Banco de España when the peseta was still legal tender.

In 2006, he was made a member of the San Fernando Fine Arts Academy and in 2012 he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts.

He was exhibited at the São Paulo Biennial (1977), and has had solo shows at the AELE - Evelyn Botella Gallery (Madrid, 1980, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2004 & 2006); the School of Architecture at the University of Navarra (Pamplona/Iruña, 1984); the Barjola Museum (Gijón, 1992); the Malaga Professional Association of Architects (2001); the Antonio Pérez Foundation (Cuenca, 2002) and the Museum of Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (Madrid, 2011), among others.

Isabel Tejeda

 
 
Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 2.