Liliana Golubinsky e-book

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BIOGRAFÍA Al abrir los ojos, un 9 de marzo de 1954, Liliana Golubinsky se asomó durara ocho años, de 1978 a 1986. Al día de hoy, con Sasha Dávila por vez primera al escenario de sus días: la ciudad de Buenos Aires. suelen decir que son hijos del mismo padre. Cosmopolita, tumultuosa, habitada por personajes dispares y plaga- da de situaciones inverosímiles, la metrópoli se ofrecía como campo Compartía el taller con Juan Lecuona, Silvana Blasbalg, Ana Erman de exploración a una niña ávida por crear su país de maravillas. e Inés Vega entre otros que iban en busca de su estética propia. Por esa época manejaba un Renault 4 azul metalizado. Un día frena en Su infancia transcurrió en los barrios de Villa del Parque y La Pater- un semáforo rumbo al taller y un señor de saco blanco y sombrero nal, donde su padre tenía un negocio de máquinas de coser. Tímida que pasaba le toca el auto y levanta el pulgar con un gesto de apro- y retraída -no le gustaba actuar en la escuela ni hablar en público- bación. Era Antonio Seguí. buscaba refugio en la hoja de papel. En sus ratos de soledad, pintaba y dibujaba con lápices de colores, tizas y acuarelas. En 1980 realiza su primera muestra individual en la antigua Galería Lirolay. Sus pinturas atraviesan diversas temáticas y períodos que Sus padres, incrédulos del oficio artístico, pensaban que la decisión se debaten entre indagaciones sobre la forma y la plasticidad de los de su hija de inscribirse en Bellas Artes era un hobby pasajero. Pero colores. Es tiempo de experimentación. su ímpetu y la confianza en sí misma prevalecieron. En 1972 ingresó en la Academia de Bellas Artes Augusto Bolognini, donde estudió Corría el año 1984. El Teatro Colón realizaba una experiencia inusual: durante cuatro años para luego especializarse en la Escuela Nacio- los bailarines ejecutaban pasos y piruetas mientras los artistas dibu- nal de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón. El geométrico Ary Brizzi, jaban, en penumbras, croquis para ballet. Liliana se destacó por la uno de sus maestros, le enseñó las vibraciones de los colores. Una agilidad y el desenvolvimiento de sus dibujos. Ganó el premio de la tarde en la escuela Liliana le expresó su temor a olvidarse lo que primera ronda. Emocionada, subió al escenario de la mano del bai- había aprendido. Brizzi le contestó con una pregunta: «El bebé que larín Gerardo Finn y el director del teatro, en ese entonces Cecilio aprende a caminar, cuando se sienta, ¿se olvida cómo se camina?». Madanes, le entregó la distinción. Contaba ya con el Premio Cecilia Grierson del Salón Nacional de Pintura, que había obtenido en 1982. A los 20 años se casó con Eduardo Krolovetzky, compañero de su vida toda. Pertinaz, ideó el nacimiento de sus hijos en los meses veraniegos Durante los años ‘90 pintó paisajes de imaginación, combinando mu- de modo que no interfiriera con sus estudios. En 1978 nacía Guido cha materia con horizontes múltiples. López Anaya destacaba: «Ha y en 1981 Lucila. Pero Liliana no dejó pasar ni un día libre sin pintar. revalorizado el color, un color que se torna más y más saturado». Mientras cambiaba pañales y admiraba la obra de Toulouse-Lautrec, el living de su departamento se iba transformando en un pequeño taller. Siempre atenta a las manifestaciones de su memoria oculta, vienen a su encuentro sucesos mágicos, apariciones insospechadas de su Comenzó a frecuentar el taller del pintor Miguel Dávila. El compro- inconsciente. En 1992 envía al Salón Provincial de Tucumán una obra miso y la generosidad de su mentor le permitieron que la estancia titulada Paisaje Suizo que curiosamente fue integrada a otro con- curso: el Salón de Paisaje. Viaja a Tucumán ya que resulta ganadora 161

del Primer Premio Adquisición al Paisaje Salón Timoteo Navarro. Al o plataformas de madera. Tatán, Tatán. En el prólogo a su muestra dar un paseo por la ciudad, se detiene en el Cerro San Javier. Allí des- de 1995, Raúl Santana contaba que Liliana «pareciera recrear la ex- cubre, para su sorpresa, que el paisaje que había pintado era igual al periencia prístina de los niños, […] se comporta en las grandes telas que estaba vislumbrando: el valle, las casas, la iglesia, las tumbas, los como una niña que juega a ubicar sus caballos y soldaditos de plo- árboles. No era Suiza, era Tucumán. En la inauguración, esa misma mo para comenzar la batalla». tarde, el pintor Luis Felipe Noé miraba atentamente la obra y se pre- guntaba: «¿Por qué tendrá banderitas suizas un paisaje tucumano?». Y también hubo letra. Una escritura automática que aludía, más que narrar. Un refuerzo de lo incomprensible de las batallas que se suce- «La obra de arte es necesariamente subjetiva y en lo fundamental dían una y otra vez. Como en los cuentos de niños que escriben los autobiográfica. Sólo los verdaderos artistas son los que logran que adultos, hay risas, juegos y saltos pero también truculencia, impac- esa subjetividad se haga también objetiva, a fin de que todos los de- to, shock. Eludiendo el sarcasmo, creaba un mundo de ironía. más participen de ella» decía Fermín Févre, su profesor de filosofía, en el prólogo a su muestra de 1993 en la Galeria Centoria. El nuevo milenio la encontró con taller propio. Estaba tan ensimis- mada en su trabajo que cuando alguien la llamaba por teléfono le En ese período, Liliana escribe: «Al cerrar los ojos vi el ancho mar, decía: «Dentro de una hora voy para Buenos Aires». El piso empezó azul profundo, azul revuelto, luces rosadas, verdes, lilas […]. El viento a poblarse de seres que literalmente se escapaban de sus cuadros. pegándome en la cara, contuve la respiración, las velas de los barcos Se expresaba así el carácter que irían adquiriendo sus pinturas: una tensas, vibrantes… ¡volé por los aires!». Emergen en sus obras las figuración abigarrada de personajes. Alberto Pío Rosales, un amigo batallas navales, los soldaditos, las procesiones, la cartografía, los que la visitó en ese momento, se imaginó a Liliana «descansando caballos. Un espacio invadido por el uso del collage, el dibujo y la en un taller custodiado por un grupo de Ángeles, que número sacro pintura. «Una Cruzada atemporal que transcurre sobre planos geo- de siete, transmiten la paz de estas batallas de la vida, como solo gráficos impresos en cuya superposición Jerusalén puede enfrentar- ellos pueden hacerlo». Con la pintura de su paleta dibuja elefantes, se a la costa del Ecuador, y los ríos gigantes semejan ser un Nilo cabras, seres mitológicos, perros. Pompeya se había trasladado al amazónico o un Mississippi africano» en palabras de Albino Diéguez barrio de Belgrano. Videla. Sin ortodoxia, sin premeditación, Liliana armaba mapas de territorios imaginarios utilizando guías turísticas y apropiándose de Una tarde en Casa FOA una arquitecta le dio la idea de hacer ban- personajes de libros de cuentos y de historia. quetas. Las pintaba con marcador, acrílico y pastel distribuyendo sus personajes por la tela y las patas de madera. Llegó a realizar hasta De pequeña tenía un caballo de madera llamado Tatán que desa- seis por día, pintando tarde y noche sin ayudantes. Del piso al techo, pareció de repente y nunca más volvió a ver. Pero él retorna en sus el taller se llenó de banquetas. La noticia llegó a España, donde se obras, donde empiezan a aparecer caballos sin patas, con rueditas fascinaron tanto que comenzaron a importarlas: las banquetas que 162

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iban para Barcelona tenían atada una cinta verde, las que iban para la ciudad, se impregnan con tanta fuerza que terminan desatando Madrid una cinta amarilla. Fue así como la convocaron a realizar en la tela un sinnúmero de líneas y colores. No hay olvido, hay re- muestras en esas dos ciudades y también en Bilbao. presentación de lo vivido en constante fluir. Tan rápido afloran las figuras que muchas veces se pregunta si lo que acaba de dibujar no En la feria de arteBA expuso banquetas y biombos. Allí el renombra- fue hecho por otra persona. do galerista Natalio Jorge Povarché se interesó por su obra. Desde el año 2003 -y hasta la actualidad- expone en Galeria Rubbers. Aban- Tiempo de confidencias, su exposición del año 2012, afirma la natu- dona el collage y las figuras recortadas por el dibujo de sus persona- raleza móvil de los caracteres en sus lienzos. Hay obras que se alte- jes citadinos. En el 2008 Julio Sánchez titulaba así el prólogo de su ran con el paso del tiempo. Las figuras saltan de un cuadro a otro y el muestra Cuestión de actitud: «La perspectiva de sus cuadros no es relato cobra, como en los polípticos, un ritmo incluso más desorde- geométrica y cohabitan varios códigos de representación: una figu- nado. Compone sus pinturas sobre superficies de color: linos azules, ración cercana a la historieta (sin serlo), expresionismo abstracto y marrones, grises, celestes. Denota en sus telas un lírico sarcasmo escrituras». Liliana mira, ve, observa, pinta. Por arriba y por debajo que la crítica Nelly Perazzo supo entrever en el prólogo del catálogo. del espacio pictórico se desplazan multitudes, nadadores, diablitos, héroes y heroínas de la existencia cotidiana. A simple vista, Liliana es una persona tranquila, risueña, relajada. Afinando un poco más la mirada, se la descubre inquieta, ansiosa, La inquieta otro tipo de contemplación, más delicada. En sus viajes sin la voluntad de soportar la espera. Suspendida en lo tragicómico, mira el paisaje humano. Los pequeños y sutiles gestos de las rela- se aventura a dar cuenta de las acciones diarias en clave de cuento ciones interpersonales: dos amigas conversando, la señora que cru- para niños. La parábola, sin embargo, es clara. No hay dobles senti- za la calle, autos apilados en el tránsito, grupos festejando. Figuras dos. Los estereotipos que encontrábamos en los relatos infantiles que se dicen cosas en los títulos de sus obras: Yo te embisto, tú me parecen, finalmente, cobrar vida. Pues varias veces la artista admite embistes, Soy la mujer de tus sueños, No soy yo es usted, Míra- haber conocido personas que antes vivieron en la superficie de sus me a los ojos y Me volvió a sangrar la herida. Murmullos cotidianos obras. Su muestra más reciente en Galería Rubbers, año 2014, lleva- que contienen el valor de la anécdota. «Las imágenes se pueblan ba el acertado título de Sintonía y conjuro. de significados, pensamientos, asociaciones, recuerdos» reflexiona Norberto Griffa en su muestra Visiones, del 2010. Ese año realizó la Liliana vive, pinta y sueña en Buenos Aires. Con los ojos abiertos al exposición Reflections of my Daily Life en la galería The Americas mundo, todos los días abandona la contemplación y como la Alicia de Collection de Miami. Allí confesaba que nunca trabaja con boce- Lewis Carrol «sentada con los ojos cerrados, casi se creía en el país de tos previos. Hay personajes que no recuerda haber hecho porque le las maravillas, aunque sabía que sólo tenía que abrirlos para que todo “salen de adentro”, se le cruzan las imágenes en su deambular por se transformara en obtusa realidad». O que sólo tenía que pintar, para transformar las fantasías y los sueños en una maravillosa realidad. 164

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12 34 5 6 78 9 10 11 12 1. Juan Díaz, Manolo López Herrera | 2. Antonio Seguí | 3. Norberto Griffa | 4. Osvaldo López Osornio, Daniel Corvino, Amalia Bonholzer | 5. Juan Kreisler, Gabriela Correa Lasterra | 6. Fernando de Szyszlo | 7. Mariana Povarche | 8. Claudia Bogliano, Mariana Povarche | 9. Luis Felipe Noe, Eduardo Krolovetzky | 10. Velia Larcinese | 11. Sasha Dávila | 12. Natalio Povarche 166

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 13. Julio Sanchez | 14. Directora GALERIA Arte Lancia | 15. Mariana Povarche, Luis Felipe Noe, Laura Feinsilber | 16. Fremín Fevre | 17. Luis Felipe Noé | 18. Fermín Fevre y Eugenia Otero | 19. Marcelo Toledo y María Paula Zacharías | 20. Luis Felipe Noé | 21. María Paula Zacharías | 22. Juan Doffo | 23. Miguel Dávila 167

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ÍNDICE DE OBRA con sangre (el condeduque) condeduque mambru se fue a la guerra, de cada cual atiende su juego 2000 2001 la serie batallas ganadas 1999 1995 tormenta en alta mar La procesión el burrito del teniente i Gira la calesita 1999 2000 2001 1997 171

jugando a no ser siempre los sin consuelo alguno todos estamos sumergidos ii esta llegando al cuello mismos 2002 2002 2002 1997 el cartonero titiritero colgados el circo i el circo ii 2004 2004 2006 2006 2006 salto mortal todos somos equilibristas te sostengo congestionamiento 2006 2005 2008 2006 172

el vestido azul pájaros en la cabeza soportando 2007 2006 2007 yo te embisto tu me embistes del mismo palo un poquito de viento Ayudenme a salir (díptico) 2007 2005 2006 2008 cuando periquito era calvo Llueve en mi ciudad se le subió a la cabeza me escuchas 2009 2009 2009 2012 173

soy la mujer de tus sueños no seas negativo A vos no te lo presto Anda a tocar la pandereta 2006 2008 2010 2009 soy frágil como un cristal cuidado, me haces ver las estrellas Alicia en el país de las 2009 2009 maravillas 2011 querés que te cuente un se le subieron los humos a la bicentenario, mirando la familia numerosa cuento cabeza historia con ojos de niña 2009 2012 2012 2010 174

el prócer tambalea san martín pateandola para otro día i pateandola para otro día ii 2011 2011 2010 2010 pateandola para día de campo todo es frágil... mi agüita otro día iii 2013 2011 2012 2010 mi mundo y el mío círculos viciosos tirame un salvavidas 2012 2015 2012 175

festejemos están todos mirame y no me toques el hongo venenoso 2012 2011 2012 2016 desde las sombras La casa se esta quemando... Los paraísos por encontrar i Los paraísos por encontrar ii 2012 2014 2013 2014 el miedo pertenecer casa rodante el juego de los errores 2013 2014 2015 2015 176

caida Libre existir con toda el alma el rayo verde 2015 2014 2016 2012 177

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TEXTS IN ENGLISH the painting as a battLe fieLd tHe bAttLes of pAintinG RODRIGO ALONSO The artworks of the late 90s show a Liliana Golubinsky devoted to The artist´s fear when confronted with the whiteness of the canvas the task of erecting her imaginary universe from quotes and appro- is like the one of the writer facing the empty sheet. It is an existen- priations. Using the collage technique, she cuts out maps and char- tial paralysis that does not have much to do with the possibility of acters of the history of art and glues them onto the canvas, shap- not achieving a significant image or writing, but with the danger of ing visual sets riddled with repetitions, tributes and resounding. not being able to set in motion the creative process that sustains Some of the images are particularly recurrent, as in the Equestrian the author in his place. Every time a piece of art is undertaken, a Portrait of the Count- Duque of Olivares, by Diego Velázquez, other battle is initiated, which is, in the first place, a personal crusade. It horsemen and old ships. With all of them, she builds true war scenar- is the struggle to keep the passion, the vocation and the energy ios – as in Won Battle (1995) - or paintings related to war attacks and that build up the spinal column of the artist´s everyday work. conquests - Each one serving their game (1999), Storm at sea (1999), Liliana Golubinsky´s paintings extend this dynamic to the pictorial The Precession (2000)-. In all cases, the space is designed through field itself. On its surfaces, the characters and the events cram to- the use of the driven back plane, which translates the horizontal po- gether in some sort of agonic fight, heterogeneous but productive. sitions into vertical locations, giving a complete and instant vision to A vibrant movement that runs through the fabrics, providing them the viewer, of everything that is happening in it. The painting is built with a singular life, a vitality that is almost instantly transferred to the with glazes and overlapping layers, which give it a density and an observer´s eye and which finds its calmness only when the conglom- obscurity that contrast with the lightness of her later productions. erates of images reveal themselves in their metaphors and meanings. Many of these paintings are often crossed by an automatic writing Although the motives have been changing with the passing of time, which configures an underground layer, at the same time textual the dynamic construction of plastic space is an authorial stigma that and visual. A narrative substrate is unfolded on it and could per- insists on translating the complexity of our contemporary world. In fectly work as some sort of historic memory. However, its content fact, there are numerous references to current life, to the troubles is incomprehensible - or rather, it can only be apprehended in frag- we face in our everyday reality, to the values and peculiarities that ments. Thus, it is more evocative than informative: it does not in- dictate ways of being and thinking. But all these amnesties appear tend to reveal the meaning of the representation but it makes it mostly in playful shapes, in visual games and ironies, in situations more complex with an open element to signification. that shape a critical perspective founded on a cute personal view. All along these years, some marks begin to appear which still con- tinue – and even deepen-in later works. One of them has to do 179

with the titles. In many cases, they come from the popular culture, and the composition of the canvas change. The painting is paving idioms, songs, movies, sayings, etc.- That ermine overcoat (1997), its way to the drawing as a visual axis and becomes more super- Each one serving their game (1999), The Lieutenant´s little donkey ficial. The palette is reduced and the pure colors, which adjust to (2002)-.In this period the ironic, critical and mocking view is also precise sectors of the representation, gain more relevance. In With present and it will be maximized later on. In The carousel spins no consolation at all (2002), for instance, the background presents round (1997), for instance, the horsemen ride wheeled horses and a homogeneous ocher coloration, while the soldiers that inhabit it the battle has turned into a real game. wear blue and red uniforms. Another important aspect is found in its narrative nature. All Golu- This latter reference is not innocent. For those who know the nation- binsky´s artworks possess some kind of plot substrate, even if it is al history, the conflict between blues and reds reminds us of a precise not evident at first sight. But the most outstanding feature is that moment of intestine fights within the army. Even when the artwork it is erected over a multitude of micro-stories, many times incon- refers to no specific event, there is a figure on it composed by a fem- gruent, which only seem to be compatible because of space prox- inine half surrounded by the Argentine flag and a cow half, which is imity. If one gazes at them closely, it is possible to notice the lack no doubt an allegory of the Argentine Republic. This, as well as the of interconnection among the characters that live in the canvas one about the wheeled horses which carry the military men on them, and among the events that each of them is carrying out. This fea- move on the platforms implying that they are child game entities. ture will deepen in later years, when the subjects lose the patina The political inter-text is not fortuitous. All along the years poste- of the historic story-line to tackle the contemporary world. Here, rior to the social and institutional crisis of December 2001, it fre- the multitudes are formed by individuals with lonely attitudes, iso- quently appears, either consciously or unconsciously, as a horizon lated, devoted to specific tasks of their environment, prisoners of of significance. The titles of the paintings in this period leave no indifference, lack of interest or alienation. room for doubt in that respect: We are all submerged (2001), It is coming up to the neck (2002), Dog hunger (2002), With no consola- up to tHe neck tion at all (2002), The cardboard-man (2004). They are artworks cre- ated amidst a dark and painful period for the country, in a period At the dawn of the millennium, Golubinsky´s paintings begin to of uncertainty and questioning, which could leave nobody indiffer- suffer an important transformation. Together with some figures ent, and which was singularly intense for the production of most borrowed from the history of art, which are painted on the can- of the artists of that time. vas now (and not cut out or glued), some others emerge, invented Parallel to this, the bases and means of production are being by her, quickly depicted, with simple but convincing features. The diversified. Linen becomes the favorite surface to carry forward academic critic of art Nelly Perazzo, is right when she affirms that, these pieces: inside out, prepared or not, plain or hatched, it with this decision, the artist “starts speaking by herself instead of starts to intervene with its singular materiality and texture in the doing it in third person”. imaginary worlds that come from the hand of the artist. A set This process occurs gradually. In artworks such as Whitening sto- of tools for creation is unfolded : the acrylics, the coal, the pas- ries (2002), the horsemen and the ship coexist with a multitude tels, the chalk pastels, the markers. Each one prints its mark on of human figures which, from a second plane, demand attention the final product with more or less resistance, according to the to their presence. As these figures gain leadership, the materiality movement that the stand asks for. 180

On the other hand, Golubinsky works with no sketches. All the of wind (2006) is organized over a centrifugal composition in which composition is created directly on the canvas. According to the men, women and dogs (animal that frequently appears during these artist, the figures appear among the linen imperfections, on the years) keep projecting to the edges of the canvas with angular im- stains and shadows, among the irregularities and folds; you only pulse. Some of the titles appeal to gerunds to emphasize the general have to give them birth. With patience, they start emerging un- image of movement, such as Bearing (2007) and Circling (2009). til the whole gains meaning. This process may take many days, or At the same time, a set of artworks exhibits a fragmented space that even, it may never occur. But the author refuses to force any draft introduces some share of statism without eliminating the tensions or to prepare sketches which could eventually help her to achieve completely, though. In Help me to get out (2008), the represen- her objective. It is in the spontaneity, the investigation and the tation is divided by a horizontal line that separates a diaphanous finding, where she finds the key to her method of creation. higher plane from a lower sector crowded with crammed pedestri- ans and vehicles. In When Periquito was bare (2009), It rains in my equiLibRists city (2009), It goes to the head (2009) and Are you listening to me? (2012), Golubinsky resorts to a grid of small paintings to segment By the year 2004, the canvases start being inhabited by flying, the composition. Each of them develops a simple and condensed acrobatic, instable characters. The pictorial space is now strictly story which, as it multiplies, comes to terms with the complex and vertical, with low and high sectors, and a flat composition that intricate worlds of the bigger canvas. On the other side, and as a maximizes bi-dimensional readings. The backgrounds tend to be distinctive mark, the colors have been reduced to black and white, homogeneous though, in occasions, they outline some attempt of with some red touches which emphasize lines and stains. volume or horizon line. But the visual weight is definitely focused Acrobats, contortionists, equilibrists print a spectacular nature on on the figures that acquire an unquestionable leadership. these artworks. Everything is offered to contemplation with an ex- Some paintings make their themes with the appearance of these hibitionist sense that appeals to the spectator, even when this vo- characters. Puppeteer (2004), Hanging (2006), The Circus (2006), Mor- lition does not seem to exist towards the interior of the paintings; tal jump (2006), We are all equilibrists (2006), I hold you (2008), justify in Look into my eyes (2006), for instance, none of the characters from their titles the presence of these beings who are hanging in the crosses glance. They appear to be the actors of stories destined to air or trying to keep the balance. This feeling of anguish frequently the exterior look and therefore, they involve the observer. It is not appears connected to the urban area - as in Overcrowding (2006), accidental that many titles are phrases based upon appellations: I The blue dress (2006), It´s not me, it´s you (2006), I assault you, you am the woman of your dreams (2006), I assault you, you assault me assault me (2007) – but many times, she seems to be speaking about (2007), Don´t be negative (2008), I don´t lend it to you (2009), Help some sort of contemporary feeling, about the complexity of the me to get out (2009) Beware! You make me see the stars (2009). world and the consequences we suffer in our everyday lives. Nelly Perazzo detects sarcasm in this “extravagant world of char- The generalization of imbalance builds scenes of marked dynamism. acters in acrobatic positions and impossible equilibriums”. In any In Belonging to the same side (2005), people and animals orbit ver- case, it is evident that there is an underlying tragic sense: a capac- tical axes which configure an agile situation, mobile and playful. In ity to overcome obstacles, accompanied by an incapacity for com- Hanging (2006) and Birds in the head (2006), some individuals taking munication. These subject matters deepen in her later artworks, as hold of others, balance and disappear towards the top frame. A bit these friendly characters give way to the multitude. 181

AmonG disputes And ceLebRAtions tHe dynAmic of tHe muLtitudes The year 2010 leaves its mark on Liliana Golubinsky´s artwork. The As the first decade of the 21st century pushes forward, Liliana Golu- bicentennial celebrations of the May Revolution revive reflections binsky keeps developing and improving a heterogeneous, complex upon the Argentinian history and the political situation in the and crammed composition form. The fabrics are dwelled by numer- country. In this context, the artist offers her own view over these ous characters that agglutinate into vague masses and transmit topics with the irony and humor that characterize her. the anonymity sense, typical of the large human extensions. Inside, Bicentennial. Looking into history through the eyes of a girl (2010) the individuals seem to be busy in simultaneous and incongruent adopts this critical perspective. The artwork is divided into two activities. Each of them in its own world, with little perception of clearly differentiated parts. In the lower part, some small school others, carries out tasks which do not seem to provide any benefit girls seem to have fun and play. Above them, in some kind of car- to the whole. Thus, there is no true community sense, but a joint of toon cloud, different characters associated with the national histo- solitudes gathered in one space- in general very close - struggling ry turn up: women with fans and hair combs, soldiers with badges, to find a place of belonging and failing in achieving their goal. General San Martin, and the Andes mountaintops, a protecting vir- Large family (2009) is one of the first paintings which exhibit this gin. But the centre of the cloud is filled by three devils which also kind of structure. Here, people of different ages distribute them- cross, like ghosts, the lower part of the painting. This discordant selves in rows, occupying the whole of the painting in a vertical mark forces to re-think the whole. In that respect, the artist makes fashion. Among them, there are school girls, mothers with babies, reference to the famous phrase “the devil put its tail into it”, to the ladies and gentlemen, children and adults, face and profile, and interferences and incidentals which may always be there, round in the most diverse attitudes. Only the grandparents are separat- the corner, and which may change the sense of the celebrations. ed from the whole, generating a singular space which contrasts In this same line of thought, Golubinsky focuses her attention on with the uniformity of the rest of the mass. On the basis of this the figures of the national leaders, these people exalted by mem- compositional structure, Golubinsky rehearses multiple solutions ory, in which the society as a whole places its hopes. Her view, of that enrich her work. At times, it is possible to identify each of the course, is not at all indulgent. A piece like The National hero staggers characters that take part in a multitude- as in the triptych Kicking (2011) makes this evident at once. However, it is not a question of it for another day (2010) or in Everything is fragile (2011)-; some oth- wrecking these history bastions without thought. On the contrary, er times, on the contrary, the popularization reaches such a high it has to do with prescribing a profound reflection on the heroism, extent, that you can hardly distinguish blurred features of lost fac- its possibilities and consequences, past, present and future. What es- as in My world and mine (2012), for example - . Sometimes, the have our history heroes been turned into? How are they being in- figures distribute themselves freely on a diaphanous space man- strumented by the speeches which evoke them in the present? aging to retain certain identity – as in My tiny water (2012) -; some In this sense, it is interesting to notice the artist ´s devotion to other times, the crowds are confined to reduced portions of the the feat of our greatest hero, San Martin (2011). In this artwork, the pictorial space, which contrast with others of a freer and broader crossing of the Andes Mountains appears to be a complex, forced magnitude- as in Throw a life-buoy to me (2012) or The fear (2013), and titanic task, which is not carried out by one person, but by for example-. Finally, there are certain artworks in which the fig- a numerous group of daring people. Bringing back the collective ures locate in different layers of opacity, creating an interesting value and losing the sacred nature of the proper names is part of a simultaneity effect- Country day (2013) for instance-, and others in revisionist process that we still have to complete. 182

which the faces that pile up generate tridimensional effects- as in tween proximity and remoteness, which allows appreciation of the From the shadows (2012) -. All these resources exalt Golubinsky´s piece from different perspectives. Effectively, it presents different artwork providing it with an always renewed visuality. visual information from near and from far, and it is the on-looker´s This almost compulsive sum of creatures and situations induces task to harmonize this variety of points of view in the construction to semantic and syntactic consequences. In the first place, it pro- of a totality that possesses some kind of coherence which may motes the development of a non-lineal narrative in terms with the satisfy him. This ocular shifting contradicts, somehow or other, the contemporary world. The new technologies have been making us spatial organization of the painting. Because, even though this is distribute the attention on instant and simultaneous information, articulated over the Cartesian axes of width and height, the ob- which urge us to build stories out of partial or fragmented inputs. server´s eye circles freely among faces, actions and objects that This type of attention is extra relevant in Liliana Golubinsky´s call its attention and that lead to an open and free contemplation. artworks. Here, the general action is the result of the addition of the unitary events, even when they are never congruent. But even micRo-stoRies And micRo-woRLds these events are not in themselves complete. Many of them hardly suggest what they are; others are practi- The individual actions performed by most of the members of the cally unrecognizable, others misleading. However, gathered in a multitudes that dwell in Golubinsky´s artworks, promote a nar- totality, they build a dramatic and peculiar atmosphere which is rative structure based upon micro-stories. Sometimes, they dis- not lacking in sense. integrate the declarative unit completely to project themselves On the other hand, this type of organization makes the confluence in a myriad of isolated situations. In My tiny water (2012), this is of simultaneous times and spaces evident, which many times are clearly perceived. Here, the characters distribute on the surface equally incongruent. The spatial inversion is common: cars that of the fabric, located on small islands which provide them with a fly, buildings that grow below the people, animals floating upside place of their own. On each of them, the most unequal actions are down, so on and so forth. Distortions in scale which provoke an carried out: a couple kissing, a woman watering a miniature house, alienation of the realistic representation are also habitual. Some- one sailor surrounded by boats and another looking through a spy- times, the situations seem to develop at a different pace but above glass, a fisherman pulling a fish from the water and putting it into all, the temporal dislocation is produced at the contemplation lev- the pan of a chef who inhabits another island, a little girl watching el. Since there are zones with concentration of activities and oth- her reflection as a man is leaving his shadow. There is no way to ers with an absence of them, the spectators are forced to move vi- establish an axis that unifies all these happenings. And, precisely, sually all over the surface of the fabric at different speeds, printing this is the proposal of the artist: offering a cosmology of beings their own rhythm on the imaginary universes according to their and events that allow the viewer to create its own approach play- eagerness and interests. fully to the artistic experience. However, through these images, The work done by the on-looker eye deserves a special consider- Golubinsky´s authorial look slides, a look that provides discom- ation because the multiplicity of stimuli the eye receives from the fort, that is immersed in the depths, and which points at trouble pictorial surface forces it to keep in almost permanent motion. spots. In Throw a life-buoy to me (2012), a large part of the fabric This movement is not exclusively produced in the bi-dimension of exhibits a car-race while in the lower right side sectors, the audi- the plastic representation, but also, in some kind of oscillation be- ence crowds together. But when seen up close, it is perceived that 183

the public is not paying attention to the sports dispute. There is the Original Sin: the tree of knowledge, the apple of temptation, a naked woman and a man who seems to sing a serenade to her. the serpent, nudity covered with grape leaves. However, the overall Another woman is dancing some dance. There are couples kissing tone is not tragic but rather festive. As if the access to knowledge each other and a man who wields a club. There is even a bust of was a kind of liberation, of unexpected potentiality, a promissory a hero, birds, dogs and other animals. A man surrounded by a life- future. The title seems to confirm this. buoy and located towards the middle of the left edge is staggering, In these artworks there is a playful atmosphere and a sense of opti- while several people in the crowd seem to play with these saving mism that somehow synthesize the spirit of the entire production gadgets. But nobody pays attention to the race. Something sim- of the artist. Because even the most critical works never lose the ilar happens in The house is burning (2014). At the bottom of the playful and humorous perspective that encourages constructive painting, a group of people are looking forward or to the side in thinking. In the same way these artworks promise paradises to be different attitudes. But nobody seems to see the magnificent fire found, the most conflicting pieces describe the area of operations of a village that is taking place behind their backs. They seem to of battles that can still be won. be anesthetized, or lost, or indifferent. This response –or rather, this unresponsiveness- makes a comment on those who inhabit the world today, driven to become increasingly insensitive to the tragedies that multiply over the globe. Everything is fragile (2011) adds to this overloaded type of compo- sition, the plastic resource of the artwork with different markers which generates an overlap of figures and actions. At first, the artist works with transparent inks that create a spectral universe. Then she uses a semi-transparent color, like yellow, and adds sil- houettes which, at times, merge with the others. Finally, she uses a marker of a net opacity, such as black or gray, which adds anoth- er figurative layer that complicates the entirety. In this piece, the relationship between proximity and distance is crucial, as crucial as the interrelationships of the various registers and associations that occur, voluntarily and involuntarily, in the confrontation of the overlapping drawings. Two recent artworks deviate a little from the usual issues in Liliana Golubinsky´s work and can serve as a conclusion to this essay. They are the ones bearing the title Paradises to be found I and II (2013). They deviate from the rest of her production, mainly be- cause they address the biblical iconography. In both, the classical topics of the Genesis Book appear telling about the transgression of God´s law, the expulsion from Eden and the establishment of 184

biographY Opening her eyes, a March 9th, 1954, Liliana Golubinsky looked own aesthetic. By that time, she used to drive a metallic blue Re- into the stage of her days for the first time: the city of Buenos nault 4. One day, she stops at the traffic- lights on the way to her Aires. Cosmopolitan, tumultuous, inhabited by unequal characters workshop and a passing- by man in white coat and hat, touches her and full of unrealistic situations, the metropolis offered itself as a car and lifts his thumb with a nod. It was Antonio Seguí. field of exploration for a girl, eager to create her wonderland. In 1980 she makes her first solo exhibition in the former Lirolay Her childhood was spent in the neighborhoods of Villa del Parque Gallery. Her paintings go through various themes and periods and Paternal, where her father owned a sewing- machine- shop. which are torn between inquiries upon the form and the plasticity Shy and introverted- did not like acting at school or talking in pub- of colors. It is experimentation time. lic-, she used to seek refuge in the paper sheet. In her moments of The year was 1984. The Colon Theatre conducted an unusual ex- solitude, she would paint and draw with color pencils, chalk and perience: the dancers executed steps and pirouettes while the watercolors. Her parents, in disbelief of the artistic job, thought artists were drawing ballet sketches in the darkness. Liliana ex- their daughter´s decision to enroll in Fine Arts was a temporary celled for the agility and the development of her drawings. She hobby. But her momentum and self-confidence prevailed. In 1972 won the first round award. Excited, she climbed the stage in the she entered the Augusto Bolognini Fine Arts Academy, where she hand of the dancer Gerardo Finn and the then theatre director, studied for four years and then specialized in the Prilidiano Puey- Cecilio Madanes, handed the distinction to her. She already had rredón National Fine Arts School. The geometrician Ary Brizzi, one the Cecilia Grierson Award of the National Painting Salon, which of her teachers, taught her the vibrations of colors. One afternoon she obtained in 1982. at school, Liliana expressed her fear to forget what she had learned. During the 90s she painted landscapes of imagination, combining Brizzi replied with a question: does the baby who already learned a lot of stuff with multiple horizons. López Anaya stressed, “ has re- to walk, forget about walking after learning to sit down? valuated color, a color that becomes more and more saturated”. Al- At the age of 20 she married Eduardo Krolovetzky, her lifetime ways attentive to the manifestations of her hidden memory, magical companion. Pertinacious, she planned the birth of her children in events and unexpected appearances of her unconscious mind come the summer months so as not to interfere with her studies. In 1978 to meet her. In 1992, she sends a work entitled “Swiss landscape” to Guido was born and Lucila, in 1981. But Liliana spent no day with- the Tucuman Provincial Salon, which was curiously integrated to out painting. As she changed diapers while admiring Toulouse-Lau- another contest: Hall of Landscape. She travels to Tucuman after trec´s artwork, her living-room was turning into a small workshop. winning the First Prize of the Acquisition Landscape Timoteo Na- She began to frequent the studio of the painter Miguel Dávila. varro Hall. While going for a stroll in the city, she stops at Cerro San The commitment and generosity of her mentor allowed her to stay Javier. To her surprise, she discovered that the landscape she had for eight years, from 1978 to 1986.Today, Sasha Dávila and she often painted was the same as the one she was glimpsing: the valley, the say they are children of the same father. houses, the church, the tombs, the trees. It was not Switzerland, it She shared the workshop with Juan Lecuona, Silvana Blasbalg, Ana was Tucuman. At the opening, that same evening, the painter Luis Erman and Inés Vega, among others, who went in search of their Felipe Noé watched the work closely and wondered, “Why does a Tucumán landscape have these little Swiss flags?” 185

“The artwork is necessarily subjective and essentially autobi- started getting crowded with beings that literally escaped from ographical. Only the true artists manage to make that subjectivity her paintings. Thus, the character her paintings would acquire ex- objective so that everyone else participates in it”, Fermin Févre, pressed itself: a heterogeneous figuration of characters. Alberto her philosophy professor, said in the preface to his 1993 exhibition Pío Rosales, a friend who visited her at that time, imagined Liliana at Centoria Gallery. “resting in a workshop guarded by a group of angels, who, sacred In that period, Liliana writes: “when I closed my eyes I saw the wide number seven, transmit the peace of these life battles, just as only sea, deep blue, scrambled blue, and pink, green, lilac lights. ( … ) they can do”. With the paint of her palette, she draws elephants, The wind hitting my face made me held my breath, the strained, goats, mythological beings, dogs. Pompeii has moved to the neigh- vibrant sailings of the boats … I flew in the air”. borhood of Belgrano. Her works emerge in the naval battles, the soldiers, the proces- One evening in FOA House, an architect gave her the idea of sions, the cartography and the horses. A space invaded by the use stools. She painted them with marker, acrylic and pastel, distribut- of collage, drawing and painting. “A timeless Crusade is taking ing her characters all over their fabrics and their wooden legs. She place on printed geographic planes in whose overlapping, Jerusa- managed to manufacture up to six stools per day, painting night lem can face the coast of Ecuador and the giant rivers resemble an and day, without any assistants. From the ceiling to the floor, the Amazonian Nile or an African Mississippi”, in the words of Albino workshop was filled with stools. The news reached Spain, where Diéguez Videla. Without any orthodoxy, nor premeditation, Liliana they became so fascinated that they began to import them: the would build maps out of imaginary territories using guidebooks ones that went to Barcelona had a green ribbon and the ones that and taking possession of storybook and history characters. went to Madrid had a yellow one. Thus, she was summoned to As a girl, she had a wooden horse called Tatan, which suddenly make samples in these two cities and in Bilbao, too. disappeared and which she never saw again. But he returns in her At the ArteBA fair she exhibited stools and screens. There, the re- artworks, where either wheeled or legless or on wooden platforms, nowned gallery owner Natalio Jorge Povarché got interested in her horses begin to appear. Tatan, Tatan. In the preface to his 1995 ex- work. Since the year 2003- and even today- she exhibits in Rubbers hibition, Raúl Santana said that Liliana “seems to recreate the pris- Gallery. She changes the collage and the cutouts for the drawing of tine experience of children, (…) behaves like a child in the large her citizen-characters. In 2008, Julio Sánchez headlined his preface canvases playing to locate her horses and her toy soldiers in order to his exhibition Question of attitude in this way: “The perspective to kick off the battle.” of her paintings is not geometric, and various codes of represen- And there were lyrics, too. An automatic writing which referred, more tation cohabit: a figuration close to the comic strip (without being than narrate. It is a reinforcement of the incomprehensibility of the that), an abstract expressionism and writings”. Liliana looks, sees, battles that occurred again and again. As in child stories that adults watches and paints. Crowds, swimmers, devils, heroes and hero- write, there is laughter, games and jumps, but also, truculence, im- ines of everyday existence move from one place to the other all pact and shock. Eluding sarcasm, she created a world of irony. above and below the pictorial space. The new millennium made her owner of a workshop. She used to She is disturbed by another kind of contemplation, a more delicate be so engrossed in her work, that when someone phoned her, she one. On her journeys she sees the human landscape. She sees the would say:”within an hour, I´ll be back in Buenos Aires”. The floor small, subtle gestures of interpersonal relationships. Two friends 186

talking, a lady crossing the street, cars piled up in transit, groups Liliana lives, paints and dreams in Buenos Aires. With her eyes celebrating. Figures saying things to each other in the titles of her open to the world, she abandons contemplation everyday and, like works: I assault you, you assault me, I am the woman of your dreams, Alice by Lewis Carrol, “sitting with her eyes closed, almost imag- It´s not me, it´s you, Look into my eyes and My wound started bleed- ined herself in Wonderland, although she knew she only had to ing again. Daily murmurs containing the value of the anecdote. open them in order to see everything transformed into a dull re- “The images are populated by meanings, thoughts, associations ality”. Or rather, she just had to paint to transform fantasies and and memories” reflects Norberto Griffa in his exhibition Visions, dreams into a wonderful reality. in 2010. In that year, she made the exposition Reflections of my Daily Life in The Americas Collection Gallery in Miami. There, she confessed that she never works with previous sketches. There are characters she does not remember to have made because “they come from within”, the images cross her mind as she wanders around the city, they impregnate with such a force , that end up unleashing a myriad of lines and colors in the fabric. There is no oblivion but representation of what has been lived in constant flow. The figures emerge so quickly that, many times, she wonders if what she has just drawn was not done by someone else. Time for confidences, her exhibition in 2012, affirms the mobile na- ture of the characters in her canvases. There are artworks that are altered with the passing of time. The figures leap from one pic- ture to another and, as in the polyptychs, the rhythm of the story becomes even messier. She composes her paintings on surfaces of color: blue, brown, gray, light-blue linens. She denotes a lyrical sarcasm in her fabrics, which the critic Nelly Perazzo could glimpse in the foreword of the catalogue. At first glance, Liliana is a quiet, cheerful, relaxed person. Perfecting the look a little, one discovers a restless, anxious person, unable to put up with waiting. Suspended in the tragicomedy, she ventures to give an account of daily actions in a children´s story fashion. The parable, however, is clear. There are no double meanings. The stereotypes that we used to find in the stories for children seem to come to life in the end. Because, many times, the artist admits to have met people who formerly lived on the surface of her artworks. Her most recent exhibition at the Rubbers Gallery, year 2014, car- ried the accurate title of Tune and spell. 187

CRÉDITOS DEL LIBRO Prólogo: Rodrigo Alonso Relato biográfico. Lorena Alfonso Corrección de textos. noelia Abraham Traductora. Rossana tucci Fotógrafos. jorge ferrario, emma Livingston, patricio pueyrredon, mauro Roll Diseño y diagramación. cmyk estudio ezequiel díaz ortiz, sol severi, Agustina Regueira © ISBN 978-987-42-1009-8 Queda hecho el depósito que previene la Ley 11.723. Todos los derechos reservados. Esta publicación no puede ser reproducida, ni en todo ni en parte, ni registrada en, ni transmitida por, un sistema de recuperación de la información, en ninguna forma ni por ningún medio, sea mecánico, fotoquímico, electrónico, magnético, electroóptico, por fotocopia o cualquier otro, sin permiso previo por escrito del editor. Su infracción está pena- da por las leyes 11.723 y 25.446.- 188

A los que siempre están apoyándome día a día, mi marido Eduardo Krolovetzky, mis hijos Guido y Laura, Lucila y César, mis nietas Olivia, Matilda y Anouk. A mi galerista y amiga Mariana Povarché y a Sasha Dávila por animarme a hacer el libro. 189

Esta edición, de 700 ejemplares, se terminó de imprimir en el mes de julio de 2016, en Akian Gráfica Editora S.A., Clay 2992, Cuidad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina. 190