Alfonco Sicilia Sobrino

Beauty does not always come from within

The life of the artist is subtle and complex
and the work that emerges from it will logically
give rise to such variegated emotions that
words will not be able to convey them.
Vassily Kandinsky

Carl Gustav Jung, the psychiatric doctor, psychologist and essayist born in Switzerland in 1875, was the founder of the school of analytical psychology and the inventor of the notion of Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, which alienated him from Sigmund Freud, with whom he collaborated during his early years of research. Jung believed that the collective unconscious¹ is like a biological memory of the repeated experiences of humanity; without realising it, we are capable of reproducing certain elements that are embedded in everyone’s memory because they have been seen or transmitted throughout history.

These images are activated unconsciously in certain situations and are there in the mind, shared with all other humans from every time and place in the world.
Jung made a distinction between “symbol” and “sign”: a symbol being a word or image that represents something more than its immediate, obvious meaning. The symbol transmits an unconscious aspect that is not precisely defined, and nor do we expect it to be, but part of our brain recovers an idea that has remained innate in our mind and which we can associate with other images, with which it then takes on a meaning. He believed that a sign is an image or word with an obvious meaning and which is not associated with any other idea than the one it transmits.
For Jung, the mythological figures or deeds which have been passed down through oral or written tradition – dragons and other fantastical creatures, geometrical shapes like circles, triangles, squares and other symbols – can be found in the collective unconscious and come into our consciousness without us being capable of interpreting them; they are simply there, and in their different guises they flow through each moment of our lives.
We are mentioning the collective unconscious because the paintings of Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino are related to the definition of this concept that Jung has given us. His abstract paintings, full of geometric shapes (which have been a feature of his work ever since he started out), his lines of diagonal colours that criss-cross and superimpose themselves, sometimes forming complex tangled networks that are difficult to follow; his combinations of gorgeous colours that make his paintings glossy and attractive, are all present in some of the objects that we might have used or seen not so long ago.
We can thus associate the way he paints his pictures with some of the embellishments that used to be used on American motorcars at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s, some of which were later replicated on many of the buses we see on the roads today – stains of metallic colour spattered on a backdrop of diagonal lines which extend down the whole length of the vehicle.
Many of us will remember those cars of the Seventies which were painted in two colours: one dominant colour with a central line that grew diagonally towards the boot with a combination such as red and white, green and white, etc. These designs, which were echoed an infinitum in some television series, still serve as a template for decorating some of the tuning cars we still see today, and are still absolutely contemporary.
This is why it would not be far-fetched to think that this conjunction of coloured lines, of diagonals that suddenly turn round upon themselves, of brilliant stars and rectangular shapes, are there in the mind of their author because unconsciously he is influenced by all the decorative effects that we have seen repeated on television, at the cinema or simply in adverts, and which help to make his paintings recognisable through our own association of ideas, as these kinds of symbols are shared by a collective.
This pictorial design of automobiles is not only present in the author’s work; he is also an admirer of industrial design, certain architectural forms, which can even be clearly identified in some of his works, and the rounded design of organic shapes serves to establish similarities with his work².

The disorder behind apparent beauty

Kandinsky said in his book “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”³ that each work is a reflection of its time and that one should not look backwards to the past because then it would be born dead. There is no question but that a work can be influenced, but the originality should be sought in its adaptation to the artistic time in which the artist is living. Knowledge of the history of painting and its evolution over the course of the 20th century mean that present-day artists can take ideas and apply them to new creations, searching for outlets that produce a result that, while not original, is different.
The precise abstract works of Alfonso Sicilia⁴ are full of geometric shapes⁵ and brilliant colours⁶ which allude to the speed of contemporary society; they are like motorways that cross over each other where the lights of the cars race swiftly past and reflect a syndrome in which work and stress dominate our lives.
It also makes you think about nodes of information and communication, which with the development of the Internet barely fifteen years ago transmit news at the speed of light; networks of knowledge that enable me to find the answer to any question, anywhere in the world, with a single click.
Explosions of fireworks, as Kandinsky said, where the dialectic of chaos and destruction manifests itself and inundates the apparent order of objects with colour; catastrophism, so much a part of the cinema or our everyday news programmes, is portrayed openly in the paintings by Alfonso Sicilia.
Coloured lights in a neighbourhood of any city, traders who light up their shops temptingly in at attempt to the attention of potential customers with brilliantly-lit signs, screens, neon; if possible with even more light than their nearby competitors against whom they has to fight to keep their business going.
Alfonso Sicilia’s works are a reflection of the contemporary landscape, a habitat which is no longer replete with trees or greenery but with roads that link up areas of difficult access; crossroads that take us to places where the virgin terrain has disappeared; spaghetti junctions which distribute people in a supposedly ordered way; and coloured lights that illuminate our daily commute back home. His work captures the spirit of a society where speed and communication are sold to us wrapped up in the beautiful colours that incite consumerism and look forward to a similar future in constant expansion.
Apparently, behind the brilliant, appealing and alluring colours that encourage whoever looks at them to move in closer, there lies a well of bitterness of a society that is driven by impulse, where speed and novelty are equally as important as the money they generate. In the words of the artist himself, we are living in a “violent yet aestheticized world. An aesthetic of destruction and chaos”⁷, as many of the news items that are presented to us, like the colours of his paintings, have been manipulated to attract a public which digests information easily, but which does not stop to reflect or think that what they are seeing is a savage army attack or bombs bursting over a city which results in the demolition of buildings, pain and death. All our news is blended into an aesthetic profile in an attempt to show it as a spectacle; information becomes a consumer object. And there is something similar in his paintings; beauty in art is important, but so is reflection on the work itself, and Sicilia’s works have a backdrop of harshness that cries out to be analysed, anticipating a chaotic future full of beautiful colours.
Like Benjamin’s thoughts in his thesis on the concept of history⁸, the accelerated pace of technology means that firstly we lose the tradition and secondly the idea emerges in the unconscious of moving forward to the era that corresponds to us. Alfonso Sicilia’s paintings present us with an accelerated future where, behind an apparently beautiful disguise, we glimpse a message in which chaos presides over order.

Rafael López Borrego

¹Jung, C.J. Complete Works, Vol. 9/I. The Archetypes and the Unconscious Collective. Editorial Trotta, Madrid 2002
²One of the creators in whose work we can find references that allude to Alfonso Sicilia’s work is the German industrial designer Luigi Colani (Berlin 1928), whose projects (many of which only got as far as simple prototypes which were never actually built), included cars, boats, planes, ceramics or traditional consumer goods, create futuristic concepts with rounded, organic shapes which in many cases remind us of the diagonals and vivid, appealing colours used by Sicilia in his works.
³Kandinsky, V. “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”. Ed Paidos 1996.
⁴Abstraction does not mean that the content of the work is not important; indeed, this is one of the characteristics that the artist takes great pains over so it is pleasing to the eye. As Javier Hernando says, “…in such a way that the attention given to the form does not imply lack of attention to the content, the dexterity and precision of his work not only gives aesthetic pleasure to the person looking at it but also transmits its meaning”. Hernando J. “Geometrías del desorden”. Catalogue for the Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino Exhibition. Salamanca City of Culture Foundation, 2007, pages 5-10.
⁵Influenced by artists such as North American Peter Halley or, more closely, by the geometric tablets used by Luís Gordillo in his paintings around the mid-1990s.
⁶“In general terms, colour is the keyboard to the human soul. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” Kandinsky, V. opus cit.
⁷Disorder and chaos is one of the nine characteristics that Omar Calabrese identifies as characteristics of our time, which the Italian semiologist classifies as Neo-Baroque and is very close to the work of many of our present-day artists. Calabrese, O. “The Neo-Baroque Era”. Catalogue of the Baroque and Neo-Baroque Exhibition. Salamanca City of Culture Foundation, 2007, pages 210-225. We can find similar themes in the paintings of German artist Franz Ackermann, Mexican artist Fernanda Brunet and Ethiopian artist Julie Mehretu.
⁸Benjamin, W. “Discursos Interrumpidos I”. Madrid, Taurus, 1982.

ALFONSO SICILIA SOBRINO

Madrid, 1963

ACADEMIC STUDIES
Fine arts graduate. Complutense University Madrid. Spain.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1987. Sala de Exposiciones de la Caja postal de Santander y San Sebastián
1988. Galería Oliva Mara. Madrid
1991. Galería Emilio Navarro. Madrid.
1992. Made in France. 46 q. Xavier Jouvin, Grenoble (Francia). Pépinières. Galería Fúcares. Almagro. 1994. Galería 57. Madrid
1997. Galería 57. Madrid
1998. Galería Caracol. Valladolid
2001. “Si la vida te da un limón….”. Galería 57, Madrid.
2003. “De mandalas y condensadores”. Galería Isabel Ignacio. Sevilla. “Trece maneras de mirar un mirlo”. Diputación Provincial de Jaén, Palacio Provincial. Jaén.
2005. Galería Ángeles Baños. Badajoz. “Mr. Hyde”. Galería Juan de Juanes. Alicante
2006. Galería Juan de Juanes. Alicante
2007. “He visto rayos C brillando en la oscuridad” Domus Artium DA2. Salamanca. Galeria Metta. Madrid.
2008. Galeria Fernando Alcolea. Barcelona
2009. Galeria Matthias Hauser.La Coruña
2011. Galería Metta.Madrid. Noviembre 2011
2012. fiberglas Jungle Kunsthalle Bahnitz. May-September 2012

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2002. Certamen de Pintura Contemporánea de la Fundación Wellintong. Madrid.
IX Premio de Pintura 2002. Caja Rural del Sur.
I Certamen Ciudad de la Pintura, Caja Vital Kutxa.
III Certamen de Pintura Contemporánea de Torrelodones.
VII Certamen UNPUBLIC de Pintura Deportiva.
XI Feria Internacional Arte Santander’ 02
LXIII Exposición Nacional de Artes Plásticas de Valdepeñas.
Galería Pedroso. Noja (Cantabria).
“Artistas de Madrid en favor del Pueblo Palestino”. Centro Cultural
Conde Duque. Madrid.
Premio de Pintura Focus-Abengoa 2002.
IV Premio Todisa de Pintura. Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos (Córdoba).
2003. ARCO 03
ANTESALA CUATRO. Sala XIII. Torrelodones (Madrid).
XXV Salón de Otoño de Pintura de Plasencia.
V Certamen de Pintura Fundación Nicomedes García Gómez.
2004. VI BIENAL ARTES PLÁSTICAS CIUDAD DE ALBACETE.
FORO SUR. Galería Ángeles Baños. Cáceres.
ARTELISBOA. Galería Ángeles Baños. Lisboa.
“ANTESALA CINCO”. Sala de exposiciones de la Casa de la Artesanía.
Peñaranda de Duero (Burgos).
GALERÍA JUAN DE JUANES.
CERTAMEN DE PINTURA FOCUS ABENGOA. Sevilla.
XXVI SALÓN DE OTOÑO DE PINTURA DE PLASENCIA.
VI Edición PREMIOS ÁNGEL DE PINTURA
2005. FORO SUR. Galería Ángeles Baños. Cáceres.
VII Edición PREMIOS ÁNGEL DE PINTURA.
XVI Premio Adaja de Pintura. Ávila.
2006. V Bienal de Artes Plásticas Rafael Botí. Diputación de Córdoba.
XVI Certamen de Artes Plásticas de la UNED.
Galería Juan de Juanes. Alicante.
Bienal de Pintura Unicaja. Itinerante.
67 Exposición Internacional de Artes Plásticas de Valdepeñas.
V Certamen Nacional de Pintura Parlamento de la Rioja.
28ª Salón de Otoño de Pintura de Plasencia.
2007. VIII Premios Ángel de Pintura.
Valencia Art.Galeria Adora Calvo.
Arte Lisboa 07.Portugal.Galeria Metta.
2008. Apuntes para una colección del S.XXI.Domus Artium.Salamanca
arte´BA08, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Galeria Metta.
ArteSantander 08. Santander. España. Galeria Metta
Art Beijing 08. Pekin. Galeria Fernando Alcolea.
Art Taipei 2008. Taipei. Galeria Fernando Alcolea.
KIAF (Korean International Art Fair) 2008.Seul, Korea. Galeria Fernando Alcolea.
2009. SIPA (Seul International Print Fair) 2008.Galeria Fernando Alcolea.
2010. ArteLisboa 08. Portugal. Galeria Metta
KIAF (Korean International Art Fair) 2008.Seul, Korea. Galeria Fernando Alcolea
Espacio Atlantico 2010. Galeria Metta
Fundacion Rafael Boti. VII Bienal de Artes Plasticas. Diputacion de Cordoba.
“Galerie Rothamel. Frankfurt”
2012. Art & Space Gallery. Munich. March

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Press Articles

1988. GALLEGO, Julián.: “Estructura, espacios, poéticas”, ABC de las Artes, p.121
HUICI, Fernando: “Tensiones en la tela”, EL PAIS, 3 de diciembre.
DANVILA, José Ramón: “Fondo y figura en la pintura de Alfonso Sicilia”, El
Punto de las Artes, 18 al 24 de noviembre, p.4.
FERNÁNDEZ CID, Miguel: “Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino, la pintura desde dentro”,
CYAM, nº12, diciembre, p. 16.
BONET, Juan Manuel: “Un pintor que emerge: Sicilia Sobrino”, Guía de Diario
16, noviembre, p. 43.
1991. LISBONA, José Antonio: “Sicilia Sobrino”, Formas Plásticas, pp. 31-34.
1992. DANVILA, José Ramón.: “Alfonso Sicilia: concurso de signos”, El Punto de las Artes, nº 222. J. R. : “La simbología de Sicilia Sobrino”, ABC de las Artes, 3 de enero.
BARNATAN, Marcos Ricardo: “Propuestas paralelas, cuatro artistas sobre el papel”. Suplemento Metrópoli de El Mundo, nº 877,27 de marzo, p. 74.
BONET, Juan Manuel: “Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino, el brillo de los símbolos”,tBlanco y Negro, 12 de enero, pp. 42-45.
PAREDES, Tomás: “Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino: made in France”, El Punto de las Artes, nº 241, del 15 al 21 de mayo.
1994. El artista Alfonso Sicilia expone en Madrid”, Guía del Diario 16, 16 diciembre, p.49.
PALLARÉS, Carmen: ” Sicilia Sobrino: gesto y elocuencia”, ABC de las Artes, 22 de diciembre, p.26.
PAREDES, Tomás: “A. Sicilia sobrino: mas allá del sincretismo, del proceso”, El Punto de las Artes, 21 de diciembre.
1995. BONET. Juan Manuel: “Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino, claridad de ideas”, Revista Blanco y Negro, 15 de enero, pp.34-37.
1997. GARCÍA-OSUNA, Carlos: ” Sicilia Sobrino”, ABC Cultural, nº 273, 24 de enero.
DANVILA, José Ramón: ” Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino. Líneas de color, campos de pintura”, El Punto de las Artes, 24 al 30 de enero.
RUBIO NUMBLOT, Javier: “Castrortega, Sicilia Sobrino, Campos: hacia una nueva iconografía”, El Punto de las Artes, del 17 al 23 de octubre, p. 6.
MONTAÑA : “Dulce geometrismo curvilicuado”, Madrid metrópolis, la ciudad virtual, enero FERNÁNDEZ, DOLORES: “Ritmos”, Madrid la ciudad virtual, octubre.
1998. Sicilia Sobrino: una mirada retrospectiva”, El Punto de las Artes, del 6 al 12 de marzo, p.23.
Becarios del Colegio de España en París”, El Punto de las Artes, del 6 al marzo, p.6.
2000. “Lenguajes con futuro: A. Plágaro, Ciria, Moro, Reguera, Sicilia Sobrino y Villarino”, El Punto de las Artes, del 14 al 27 de abril., p. 39.
2001. J. H.: “Sicilia Sobrino”, El Cultural del Mundo, 7 de noviembre, p. 36.
MARTÍN GALÁN, Fernando: “Construccionismo”, ABC Cultural, 10-11, p. 34.
ALFONSO, Carlota de: ” Reivindicaciones espaciales de Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino”, El Punto de las Artes, del 2 al 8 de noviembre, p. 5.
2003. FAJARDO, Laura: “Sicilia Sobrino: en este mundo tan materialista se hace cada vez más evidente que necesitamos soñar”, ABC (edición Sevilla), 27 de enero de 2003, p.59.
TORRE AMERIGHI, Iván de la: “Parábola del desencuentro: Sicilia Sobrino, De mandalas y condensadores , Blanco y Negro Cultural, 22 de febrero, 2003, p. 35.
GARCÍA RUBÍ, Amalia: “El espacio geométrico de Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino”. El Punto de las Artes, del 7 al 13 de febrero de 2003, p. 28.
C.B. “Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino”. ABC (edición Sevilla), 27 de enero 2003, p. 20.
“Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino en la Galería Isabel Ignacio”. EL Mundo, 21 de enero de 2003, p. 61.
FERNÁNDEZ, Dolores: “Alfonso Sicilia”, LaNetro, Madrid, 24 de febrero de 2003.
“A. Sicilia Sobrino, el canto del mirlo.” El punto de las artes, 25 de abril a 1 de mayo de 2003. p. 23.
2004. CARRASCO PEDRERO, Martín. “Sicilia Sobrino, la docilidad geométrica.” Diario de Badajoz, 4 de febrero de 2004. p. 53.
“A. Sicilia Sobrino. Hacia una geometría liberada”. El punto de las artes, 30 de enero al 5 de febrero de 2004. p. 23.

BOOKS

• RIERA MERCADER, Josep Mº; PADILLA, Mari Sol. Viver los 20. Madrid: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, Instituto de la Juventud, 1988. p. 1-10
• CEBRIÁN, Inmaculada. Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino. Madrid: Galería Emilio Navarro, 1991.
• S. HARGUIDEY, Ángel. El territorio de lo desconocido .Madrid: La Esfera del Arte, 1997. P. 1.
• MARÍN MEDINA, José. XXV Certamen Nacional de Pintura 1997. Madrid: Obra Social, Caja Madrid, 1997. P.8.
• PAREDES, Tomás. Jovem pintura espanhola : lingugens com futuro. Portimao: Câmara Municipal, 2000. Pp.3-4.
• MARÍN MEDINA, José. Caja Rural del Sur : IX Premio de Pintura 2002. [Madrid]: Caja Rural del Sur, 2002. P.42.
• PAREDES, Tomás. Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino : De mandalas y condensadores. Sevilla: Galería Isabel Ignacio; Alfonso Sicilia Sobrino, 2003.
• PAREDES, Tomás, [y Doce más]. Trece maneras de mirar un mirlo. Jaén: Diputación Provincial, 2003.

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS AND MUSEUMS

• Ayuntamiento de Alcobendas
• Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid
• Instituto de la Juventud
• Ayuntamiento de Albacete
• Ayuntamiento de Mérida
• Ayuntamiento de Murcia
• Ayuntamiento de Alcorcón
• Colección UEX-IBERDROLA
• Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos de Madrid
• Colegio de España en París
• Caja de Madrid
• El Punto de las Artes
• Antena 3 TV
• Fundación Wellington
• Ayuntamiento de Torrelodones
• Gobierno de Cantabria
• Colección Unipublic
• Caja Extremadura
• Caja de Ávila
• Colección Bodegas Félix Solís
• Domus Artium Salamanca

GRANTS

1985 Grant Instituto de la Juventud para realizar la primera exposición individual.

1992 Grant ” Pépinières “. Genoble. Otorgada por Eurocreation (París)

1994 Grant Artes Plásticas de Mojácar.

1996 Grant “Colegio de España”. París.

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