Teran

TERÁN (Chile, 1974).
"Tribute to Bourgeois", Tribute to genius series, 2021.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner. Signed, dated and titled on the back.
Measurements: 85 x 26 cm; 97 x 38 cm (frame).
In this work, Manuel Terán reinterprets the sculptural and symbolic universe of Louise Bourgeois, one of the fundamental figures of 20th century contemporary art. Rather than reproducing a specific work, Terán proposes a visual evocation of the artist's imaginary. The catalog of the exhibition "Tribute to the Geniuses" states that "Terán tries to postulate the return of painting as a symbolic strategy. His tributes, which take the form of pastiches, but are not". In this context, the tribute to Louise Bourgeois is integrated within a heterogeneous constellation of artistic references that includes names such as Francis Bacon, Jean Dubuffet, Pablo Picasso or Andy Warhol. The diversity of these references reveals a free and transversal approach to the history of art, where affinities respond more to personal admiration and expressive intensity than to stylistic or chronological criteria.
Terán's work does not pretend to slavishly imitate Bourgeois' language, but to dialogue with it from the pictorial contemporaneity. In this sense, the artist transforms painting into a space for reflection on the visual memory of modern and contemporary art, vindicating the validity of the painted image as opposed to other media. The result is a piece that oscillates between homage, reinterpretation and critical appropriation, always maintaining a deep awareness of the artistic tradition to which it refers.
A Chilean artist living in Spain, Manuel Terán, a graduate in Fine Arts, has developed his creative work in the field of plastic arts and new technologies applied to art. Since his appearance in 1995 at the Salón de Otoño del Círculo de Bellas Artes in Santiago de Chile, he has had solo and group exhibitions in Latin America and Europe, obtaining awards such as the prize of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in 2004.