After Final de Partida, Jordi Teixidor's last major exhibition at the IVAM,the pieces left on the board provided evidence of an inevitable conclusion,which, as in many other instances, led us to contemplate that the creativeprocess is not automatic and can lead to outcomes different from thoseinitially intended.

The game played (la partida) may have been, along with his series of blackpaintings, the most radical in his long career. Success was not in reachingthe end but in acknowledging failure, defeat, within which continuity canstill be anticipated.

Once again, there is no evidence of representation in his paintings; it iscontained within the specific form of his work. The theme does not appearon this occasion either, that theme which, according to W.H. Auden, isnothing more than the peg upon which the poem will hang.In contrast to the rigor and severity of his work in recent years, there is anew element in the paintings Teixidor presents to us now, a certain ironythat, on the one hand, distances us from the object and, on the other, bringsus closer to a negation of the same, allowing for complete freedom ofapprehension and appreciation.

Three main paintings are central to Teixidor's work in this exhibition. Theirtitles: La edad de los nombres (The Age of Names), La edad de las palabras(The Age of Words), and La edad de las cosas (The Age of Things) referenceMarcel Proust's work À la recherche du temps perdu, which, according tothe great American critic Edmund Wilson, Proust once considered dividinginto three parts with those same titles.

The exhibition also features a composition of four narrow paintings, eachwith different colors and geometric shapes. It could be seen as a completemusical piece, perhaps with a touch of irony. Nevertheless, in the paintingwith a crimson background overlaid with a geometric structure of warmcolors centered at the top, one might discern a greater determination thatis not far from a certain analogy with Rothko's painting.

Two other works, characterized by rigid geometry, one in black and theother with fading black, evoke the concept of negativity. Negativity isinherent to art. The inexpressible and also silence are part of its language.Because the ultimate goal is not to negate but to reaffirm the indescribableaspect of things.

Press release courtesy NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ.