María Lara | The Slowness of Light

Description

María Lara
The Slowness of Light

For a long time, María Lara (Loja, Granada, 1940) was considered a ‘secret painter’, as her work, developed in the privacy of her studio, was rarely shown in public. In recent years, however, she has steadily been gaining wider recognition, with a growing presence in galleries, art fairs and public institutions.

"The Slowness of Light", curated by Armando Montesinos, brings together nearly 40 works, including paintings and drawings, which trace her career over the last twenty-five years. During this time, her rigorous research—underpinned by patient determination—has achieved a vibrant polish distinguished by a strong aesthetic intensity.

Her work displays the intrinsic qualities of painting, far removed from descriptive or literary content. In her paintings—in this aspect, her art has ties to Minimalism—there is no representation, no metaphor, no metaphysics, but rather the reality of their format, their size, their vibrant chromatic fields and their straightforward, yet by no means simple, compositional structures, organised around horizontal or vertical linear divisions.

María Lara gives visibility to mental and sensory perceptions that acquire a physical presence through painting. Her pieces—born from a visual sensitivity attuned to the subtle variations of light in her studio (the artist calls this “coexisting with this ambience of light as a recipient”)—are devices slowly and carefully developed through a precise appraisal of colour, its combinations and its rhythms.

“Perception, reception and response are all the same,” wrote Agnes Martin, whose creative investigations resonate with María’s own: perceiving light and responding to it as a recipient; conveying colour and light onto the canvas’s surface by drawing on her deep pictorial knowledge to create true spaces of contemplation. Rather than images for rapid consumption, María Lara offers the observer a perception of the slowness of light.

María Lara was born in Loja (Granada) on 19 December 1940. She lived there for several years before moving to Granada. She studied Fine Arts in Seville, at the Santa Isabel de Hungría School of Fine Arts, and at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. Her time in Madrid was of great importance to her training, as she came into contact with outstanding Spanish and international artists. During this period, she travelled to Italy and Greece. After completing her Fine Arts degree, she lived in Málaga for a couple of years, painting and teaching painting and drawing. In 1970–71, she resided for a time in Paris and Bordeaux.

Once back in Spain, in 1973 she married the Japanese artist Mitsuo Miura, with whom she has two children. They lived in Bustarviejo (Madrid) for thirteen years. From 1985 onwards, they settled permanently in Madrid, where they continue to share a studio to this day.

In 1982, she was awarded a grant from the Ministry of Culture which aimed to foster ‘New Contributions to the Visual Arts’. Between 1989 and 1999, she collaborated on the creation and development of the Madrid-based art gallery and publisher Galería & Ediciones Ginkgo, alongside Arturo Rodríguez and Mitsuo Miura.

Her work is held in various collections, including the Helga de Alvear Museum, Cáceres; MUSAC, León; the Regional Government of Andalusia, Seville; Caja Madrid, Madrid; and Burgos City Council.

Her recent solo exhibitions include "Percepciones de interior "(Interior Perceptions) at Galería Maior, Pollença, Mallorca (2022) and Galería Adora Calvo, Las Rozas, Madrid (2021); "Sensaciones, registros e impresiones" (Sensations, Records and Impressions), MUSAC, León (2019); and "La luz" (Light), Francisco Sobrino Museum, Guadalajara (2019).

Armando Montesinos Blanco is the curator of this exhibition. A specialist in contemporary art, he has organised more than 100 exhibitions featuring national and international artists, both as an independent curator and as director of the Fernando Vijande Gallery in the 1980s, and the Juana Mordó and Helga de Alvear galleries in the 1990s. Between 1983 and 1985, he was the assistant director of the TVE-2 programme La Edad de Oro (The Golden Age), which was dedicated to arts and music.

He holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Castile-La Mancha and was a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cuenca (UCLM) from 1989 to 2019. He has published numerous texts in catalogues, newspapers and specialist journals, and co-authored the biography Juan Genovés: Ciudadano y pintor (Juan Genovés: Citizen and Painter).

Notable recent curatorial projects include "LaboLuz Ex Machina", Centre del Carme, Valencia (2024); "Juan Carlos Bracho: Arquitectura y <yo>" (Architecture and ‘Me’), Sala Alcalá 31, Madrid (2019–20); "(Ex)posiciones Críticas: Discursos críticos en el arte español, 1975–1995" (Critical (Ex)positions: Critical Discourses in Spanish Art, 1975–1995), CGAC, Santiago de Compostela (2017); and "Idea: Pintura Fuerza" (Idea: Painting-Force), Reina Sofía Museum, Madrid (2013–14).