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[[right margin]] for JOURNAL OF THE PRINT WORLD [[/end right margin]]

The 2004 Invitational Exhibition at Washington Printmakers Gallery Celebrates the Relief Prints of Naúl Ojeda
by Max-Karl Winkler

Studying the work of Naúl Ojeda, one is struck by two thoughts: first, that the range of influences on his work is both wide and obvious; and secondly--paradoxically--that the art resulting from those influences is not "like" any of them. The 2004 Invitational Exhibition at Washington Printmakers Gallery, which will open on 30 December and run through 25 January 2004, provides the first opportunity in recent years to view a selection of his prints, and to enjoy the uniqueness that resulted from those influences.

And what are they?

Foremost, perhaps, is a quality of innocence, of simplicity. Ojeda's images are reminiscent of the art of children, or of the art of so-called "primitive" cultures. The figures with their silhouette faces and simplified bodies seem to derive from Aztec codices and the Sunday funnies in equal measure, with a dash of Henri Rousseau. Ojeda's work has been compared with that of Chagall, in part because of the way the figures often float above his landscapes, but surely in part because of the wit and affection that propel them.

This art could be called childlike, but it is not childish. Ojeda was graduated from the School of Fine Arts of the University of Uruguay at a time when Montevideo was one of the cultural centers of Latin America. Joaquín Torres-García, the immensely influential art theorist, teacher, and lecturer, had spent his later years there, and the Torres-García Workshop continued to exercise his cultural dominance through the 1960's. Ojeda's work always reflected the ideals and values of the Montevideo aesthetic: (1) an involvement with social issues, (2) imagery derived from Catholic peasant art, from folk art, and from the precolumbian cultures of Latin America, (3) a fondness for modest materials, and (4) a strong empahsis upon craftsmanship.

Wings of the Dove, one of the smaller prints in the 2004 Invitational Exhibition, embodies many of the characteristics of Ojeda's work. It is divided into three distinct color areas. At the upper right, in black line, the eponymous dove flies into the picture, while a woman--rendered mostly as a profile head and an arm, with other shapes that might represent drapery, or dark wings--reaches up toward the bird as if to salute it or feed it. To the left, dominating the picture, is a large, round, orange sun, beautifully inked to reveal the grain of the wood and the knot at its core. Across the bottom, a short strip of blue--apparently a length of plastic binding-tape--anchors the image, suggesting a sea horizon.