Ricardo Mazal | Full Circle and the Diamond Series

RICARDO M A Z A L

RICARDO MAZAL F U LL

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S U N D A R A M TA G O R E S I N G A P O R E APRIL 9 – JU NE 12, 2021

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We are pleased to present a solo exhibition of new, richly colored abstract paintings by acclaimed Mexican artist Ricardo Mazal. The work in this show builds on spiritual themes and revisits formal elements and techniques the artist has been exploring for decades.

Mazal’s practice has always been rooted in ideas of transformation, particularly spiritual transformations. His interests have taken him from the tomb of the Red Queen in Chiapas, Mexico, to the Peace Forest cemetery in Odenwald, Germany. He has walked the Kora, a meditative pilgrimage circumambulating Mt. Kailash, Tibet’s holiest summit, and has sat in silence inside the sacred temple of Prague’s Old Jewish Cemetery, one of the oldest Jewish burial grounds in the world.

All of these experiences yielded expansive bodies of multidisciplinary work. But when the world shut down last spring, exploring other cultures through travel was no longer an option. Mazal, who had just opened a major solo exhibition at the Centro Cultural Estacion Indianilla in Mexico City, returned to his Santa Fe studio in the American Southwest, where he used the quiet and isolation to look inward for inspiration.

Left: Ricardo Mazal’s studio, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2021 5

THE FULL CIRCLE SERIES Mazal immersed himself in an exploration of form, color But Mazal doesn’t just expand on earlier techniques, he and perspective. Tapping into his early years as a graphic introduces new ones. To produce the gently arched forms designer, he used Photoshop to generate hundreds of that sweep across Full Circle P 19, Mazal had to teach abstract arrangements. He played with linear elements, himself to render perfectly curved lines. The experience was bending and twisting them, as if they were turning in space. slow and arduous, but it opened him up to discovering new When he randomly struck a form that recalled the movement paths, including colorful, minimalist abstract compositions and energy of earlier prayer flag paintings, Mazal felt a tilted to a 45-degree angle. spark. Over several weeks, he pored through the archives of his work spanning the past twenty years, examining and reimagining the essential elements that define it.

THE DIAMOND SERIES

The idea of deconstructing previous paintings isn’t wholly These new works were inspired by the diamond paintings new to the artist. If you look closely at his work over the of Piet Mondrian. Mazal cites the renowned Dutch artist, years, you’ll find traces of one series carried over to the next. known for his innovative forms of expression and restricted It is a regenerative and cyclical process that in some ways palette, as a strong influence early in his career. In contrast to parallels the spiritual themes Mazal explores.

Mondrian’s characteristic style, where he strictly confines his compositions to the horizontal and vertical planes, Mazal’s

With each new composition, Mazal drew on familiar formal abstract arrangements play off the angles of the canvas, elements—from the textured geometric forms of his Prague echoing their form. paintings (2017–2019) to the singular hue explored in his color study Violeta (2019–2020).

In some works, such as Full Circle K 6, he borrows a painting method from his Kailash series (2011–2014), where layers of translucent color applied with a foam-rubber blade emulate the mountain’s snow-streaked peaks. Here, Mazal brings the rhythmic bands of blurred color to the forefront, making them the focus of the work.

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Full Circle P 20, 2021, oil on linen, 50 x 70 inches/127 x 178 cm 8

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Full Circle P 22, 2021, oil on linen, 50 x 70 inches/127 x 178 cm 10

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Full Circle P 14, 2020, oil on linen, 40 x 44 inches/101.6 x 111.8 cm 12

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Full Circle P 12, 2020, oil on linen, 40 x 44 inches/101.6 x 111.8 cm 14

Full Circle P 16, 2020, oil on linen, 40 x 44 inches/101.6 x 111.8 cm 15

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Ricardo Mazal’s studio, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2021 17

Full Circle P 19, 2021, oil on linen, 73 x 112 inches/185.4 x 284.5 cm 18

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Full Circle P 21, 2021, oil on linen, 50 x 70 inches/127 x 178 cm 20

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Full Circle P 9, 2020, oil on linen, 48 x 64 inches/122 x 162.6 cm 22

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Mazal’s studio, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2021

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Full Circle K 6, 2021, oil on linen, 54 x 69 inches/137 x 175.3 cm 26

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Full Circle K 8, 9 and 10, 2020, oil on Dibond on wood, 23 x 24 inches/58 x 61 cm each 28

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Silence For Sofi 5, 2021, oil on linen, 40 x 44 inches/101.6 x 112 cm 30

Full Circle K 7, 2021, oil on linen, 40 x 44 inches/101.6 x 112 cm 31

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Ricardo Mazal’s studio, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2021 33

Diamond 5, 2021, oil on linen, 56 x 60 inches/142 x 152.4 cm 34

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Diamond 2, 2021, oil on linen, 56 x 60 inches/142 x 152.4 cm 36

Diamond 4, 2021, oil on linen, 56 x 60 inches/142 x 152.4 cm 37

Diamond 1, 2021, oil on linen, 90 x 97 inches/228.6 x 246.4 cm 38

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Diamond 6, 2021, oil on linen, 56 x 60 inches/142 x 152.4 cm 40

Diamond 7, 2021, oil on linen, 56 x 60 inches/142 x 152.4 cm 41

Diamond 3, 2021, oil on linen, 56 x 60 inches/142 x 152.4 cm 42

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R I C A R D O

M A Z A L

Ricardo Mazal was born in Mexico City in 1950. He has exhibited extensively in galleries and museums throughout the Americas, Asia and Europe. Since 2000, he has had fourteen museum exhibitions in Mexico and the United States, including retrospectives at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey (2000), the Museo de Arte Moderno de la Ciudad de México (2006), the Museo de Arte de Querétaro (2009), the Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguérez (2010) and the Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe, as well as thematic exhibitions in the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (2006), the Museo Nacional de Antropología (2004–2005) and the Centro Cultural Estación Indianilla, among others. In 2015 Mazal’s work was included in Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the 56th Venice Biennale.

Mazal’s work is included in the permanent collections of The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguérez, Zacatecas, Mexico; Maeght Foundation, Paris; Centro de las Artes, Monterrey, Mexico; Cirque du Soleil, Montreal; the Peninsula Hotel, Shanghai; and Deutsche Bank, New York and Germany.

Ricardo Mazal divides his time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and New York City.

Left: Ricardo Mazal in his studio, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2020

SUNDARAM TAGORE GALLERIES We have been representing established and emerging artists from around the world since 2000. We show work that is aesthetically and intellectually rigorous, infused with humanism and art historically significant. We specialize in paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations with a strong emphasis on materiality. Our artists cross cultural and national boundaries, synthesizing Western visual language with forms, techniques and philosophies from Asia, the Subcontinent and the Middle East. We show this work alongside important work by overlooked women from the New York School. The gallery also has a robust photography program that includes some of the world’s most noted photographers.

NEW YORK Chelsea: 547 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001 • tel 212 677 4520 Madison Avenue: 1100 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10028 • tel 212 288 2889 gallery@sundaramtagore.com

SINGAPORE 5 Lock Road 01-05, Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108933 • tel 65 6694 3378 singapore@sundaramtagore.com

LONDON 4 Cromwell Place, London, SW7 2JE President and curator: Sundaram Tagore Senior Director, New York: Susan McCaffrey Director, Singapore: Melanie Taylor Director, New York: Kathryn McSweeney Registrar: Julia Occhiogrosso Designer: Russell Whitehead Editorial support: Kieran Doherty

WWW.SUNDARAMTAGORE.COM Text © 2021 Sundaram Tagore Gallery Photographs © 2021 Ricardo Mazal All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Cover: Full Circle K 10 (detail), 2020, oil on Dibond on wood, 23 x 24 inches/58 x 61 cm