Reason and Passion in the style of Juan Suarez Blanco

"Our souls are a battlefield where reason and judgment wage war against passion and desire," says Juan Suarez Blanco (JSB), one of the talented artists of the Maxima collection. This creator has years of experience, precisely, in that eternal struggle of every man between emotions and logic. He captures it in his writing, in his poetry, but above all in the abstract and conceptual art that marks his days and his path.

It is not surprising then that one of JSB's works bears the name "Reason and Passion". It is a diptych with obvious influences of pop art and where blue and yellow are the only two colors appearing in the piece, without giving way to the obvious mixture of both pigments: green. Only blue and yellow, with very different backgrounds, allow an optical illusion, regarding the visuality of each abstract landscape in itself.

Although they are two pieces belonging to a set, it is possible to think of them separately, close your eyes and analyze that the small blue circles on the left alter the gaze somewhat, due to the composition presented behind, and also to the presence of a spatula, which bursts into the pictorial scenario and changes the discourse, alters it, dynamizes it and involves the viewer. It is the gaze of third parties that ends the journey, those restless minds that do not remain only with the figuration of the canvas.

On the right, on the other hand, the view looks calmer at first, because from above, one of the extremes warns of the existence of moments of agitation, of passion, and the result is the area where the blue is once again the center of the intentions.

To fully understand JBS's "Reason and Passion", the work must be seen in its entirety, although each portion has a unique vibration and independent sensory life.

"No one can pacify our spirit, nor transform the discord and rivalry of these elements into unity and harmony, except ourselves. Reason and Passion are the rudder and sails of our navigating souls. If the sails and rudder break, they can only rock and drift, or else remain stranded in the middle of the ocean, for if reason rules alone it will be a restraining force. In the opposite direction, passion is beating and careless, it is a flame that burns until its own extermination," Juan Suárez Blanco explains.

With the soul of a sculptor, the artist leaves traces of this manifestation in his paintings. It is impossible not to notice in his works that feeling, that essence that makes his work even more authentic and recognizable. The volume and the variety of textures in his pieces become, in addition, habitual resources of his work.

The art of Juan Suarez Blanco is an experience that calms and agitates at the same time, depending, of course, on the figuration, colors and motifs. He is not a creator who provokes the same feeling or related emotions. He works to the point of exhaustion, with an admirable level of detail and exquisiteness. He also masters the art of transforming the "grotesque" into beauty, into refinement, into a spectacle for the eye from which no one remains indifferent.