René Ugarte: Structures et Convergences

27 March - 2 May 2025
  •  

  • Sensitive and sober, the work of René Ugarte (Venezuela 1951 - Lives and works in France) is the fruit of...

    Sensitive and sober, the work of René Ugarte (Venezuela 1951 - Lives and works in France) is the fruit of a coherent reflection and a rigorous discipline. Based on the concept of structure, his paintings, executed on canvas and wood, reveal a simple configuration: the use of pure forms (square and rectangle) and the line in an alternative and repetitive way. Ugarte is developing a network of lines that cross the board horizontally, vertically and diagonally. The diagonal that he uses in a systematic way allows him to accentuate the dynamism of the work. Through this network of lines, orthogonal shapes determined by solid colors appear.

     

    Nevertheless, this rigorous geometrical structure which gives the painting an impression of balance and visual unity, is none the less illusory. It is the imbalance, the asymmetry, the destructuring that the artist seeks in his work. So he plays with ambiguity and dynamics to acquire a greater presence in space and come to a new reading, a discontinuous reading of his work.

     

    Educated at the School of Fine Arts in Valencia, Venezuela, René Ugarte was particularly inspired by the abstract art of Casimir Malevitch, founder of Suprematism, but also by the painters of neoplasticism by Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. Within these abstract and constructive concepts to which Ugarte refers, "he has found remarkable solutions to the problem of the ambiguous perception of pictorial space by combining the two-dimensional with superimposed volumes". His integration into the artistic milieu of the time is also encouraged by the presence of Venezuelan artists, Jesús Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz Diez, great kinetic masters for whom he worked.

  • Espace Meyer Zafra is pleased to present “Structures and Convergences”, a solo exhibition by Venezuelan artist René Ugarte. From March 27 to May 2, 2025, the exhibition will bring together works made from acrylic on wood and plexiglass. 

  • The exhibition Structure and Convergences is, in the words of René Ugarte, “a set of structures organised in a space around geometric elements which, repeated, will create a unitary visual reading. Each structure is dependent on the other because it is in an idea of series that we find the notion of convergence: convergence of straight lines heading towards common points, squares, rectangles, planes of color arranged in a precise place but dislocated by the dynamic exterior of the lines. The reading of this whole ensemble is seen as a single and unique order” 

     

    Structures and Convergences brings together a selection of works that illustrate the culmination of Ugarte’s research on fragmentation and formal instability. His work is based on a subtle play of balances and imbalances, where the apparent rigidity of geometric forms is thwarted by interventions that alter their cohesion. 

    • René Ugarte, Rupture d'un plan rouge, 2022
      René Ugarte, Rupture d'un plan rouge, 2022
      View more details
    • René Ugarte, Lignes blanches ouvertes, 2017
      René Ugarte, Lignes blanches ouvertes, 2017
      View more details
    • René Ugarte, Plan Bleu, 2024
      René Ugarte, Plan Bleu, 2024
      View more details
    • René Ugarte, Lignes décalées, 2024
      René Ugarte, Lignes décalées, 2024
      View more details
  • René Ugarte’s works on wood, canvas and plexiglass appear as a relatively simple configuration of purely formal elements: colours, shapes, lines and planes. -Gilbert browstone

    • René Ugarte, Angles ouverts, 2020
      René Ugarte, Angles ouverts, 2020
      View more details
    • René Ugarte, Bords décalés, 2020
      René Ugarte, Bords décalés, 2020
      View more details
    • René Ugarte, Deux plans + bords de couleur, 2024
      René Ugarte, Deux plans + bords de couleur, 2024
      View more details
    • René Ugarte, Bords vert + rouge, 2010
      René Ugarte, Bords vert + rouge, 2010
      View more details
    • René Ugarte, Bords dynamiques, 2021
      René Ugarte, Bords dynamiques, 2021
      View more details
    • René Ugarte, Angles, 2022
      René Ugarte, Angles, 2022
      View more details
    • René Ugarte, Angles noir et blanc, 2012
      René Ugarte, Angles noir et blanc, 2012
      View more details
    • René Ugarte, Rectangles superposés, 2020
      René Ugarte, Rectangles superposés, 2020
      View more details
  • The lines cross the painting horizontally, vertically and diagonally. They form an irregular grid containing flat, rectangular areas of colour. The arrangement is asymmetrical, but the way in which these blocks of colour are associated in the painting maintains an impression of balance and visual unity. And yet, if everything seems simple and structured at first glance, we quickly realise when faced with the works that Ugarte’s rigorous geometry is illusory. Indeed, he plays with ambiguity and dynamics to achieve destructuring. This is what interests the artist above all: using the simplest means to arrive at a new reading.” - Gilbert Browstone 

    • René Ugarte, Lignes Blanches, 2025
      René Ugarte, Lignes Blanches, 2025
      View more details
    • René Ugarte, Rectangles Ouverts, 2025
      René Ugarte, Rectangles Ouverts, 2025
      View more details
    • René Ugarte, Triangles superposés, 2021
      René Ugarte, Triangles superposés, 2021
      View more details
    • René Ugarte, 6 rectangles, 2020
      René Ugarte, 6 rectangles, 2020
      View more details
  •