ESPACIO REGULADOR, 2006-2008
Pilar Giró, historian and art critic

The search for purity and synthesis are fundamental premises in the development of the pictorial language of Pablo Rey. In the same way the narrative element in each line is eliminated in tracing the outline of a space through colour. In this way the presence of the painting invades the whole discourse, whether it be compositional, sensorial, or emotional. In Espacio Regulador the brushstroke marked out by the lines are broken but perhaps the communication between the intervals created between the different strokes becomes more relevant. A space that can be interpreted as the silence necessary for thought and reflection, a silence prized in our contemporary society in a world which neither sleeps nor rests. Time travels fast, the brushstroke too and the gaze pauses before fragments of a whole, fragments able to seduce and lead one to examine every corner of the canvas.

The contemporary nature of these works can also be found in the passage of time and the way in which one reads them, where each viewer can set their beginning and end, even holding back and stopping time in the dialogue depending on the need the perception dictates. So in the same way Proust searched for his lost time and the brushstrokes of the Impressionists fought to capture the instant, or Joyce breaking with chronological narrative and situating different spaces and times on the same plane, drawing us towards cubism; Pablo’s painting can bring us closer, in a material sense to the language of information technology, in which information fluctuates until someone stops it for an instant in order to absorb it.

The paintings of Pablo Rey, particularly in this series, transmit a sensation of freshness and spontaneity almost playful, with a firm line, confident, clean, free and relaxed, I would dare to say, on occasions, even happy. He himself has confirmed that he likes and feels the need to play like a child, to look for this unbiased freedom which characterizes the daring of childhood, but on the other hand accepts the need to have a clear idea of what painting is and what it isn’t. Pretending to be a child and delimiting adult behaviour are the guidelines which mark a work which is designed in terms of the complex equilibrium between rational and emotional drives that are at the same time fundamental for guiding one through the work of this artist.

Espacio Regulador offers pictorial spaces which encourage and provoke the most varied sensations to flow from the imagination. In this series many elements appear which can be found in his previous paintings. The background atmospheres which have been running like a thread through his work since Landscapes of New York. The dancing line or the calligraphic quality of the brushstrokes connect with compositions hinted at in Correction, Campo Policrónico, Ámbito de Acumulación and appear to be evolved from Estados Complementarios. The density of the colour down to the consistency of the paint suggest textures explored previously in Estados Superpuestos.

From the primitive visceral quality in the impact of the colour, to the most elaborate web of perceptions hidden in the spontaneous subtlety of a brushstroke which allow the color to float on the picture plane have an important effect on the space. The compositions that make up this series allow us to forget the flat pictorial surface of the canvas and give way to a fusion of the senses: it leaves room for movement in the paths the lines take, for the light within the shapes or for the sound radiated by the different densities of colour and texture.

The fusion of the senses represents a new reality in the expressive vocabulary. Giving shape to sensations and impressions, inventing a new language, gives reflection a free rein. This discourse is what Pablo Rey is transforming into painting. This new space which is vertiginous in the sense that it suggests similar sensations to those experienced when taking one’s first step alone into a new world, be it solely an interior world that only art can make visible. The enthusiasm Pablo Rey has for abstract representation comes from the fact that it’s a type of expression where the spectator isn’t restricted, isn’t limited by the various meanings expressed in recognisable shapes, on the contrary it encourages further reflection.

Pablo Rey conceives his work as a space which is open on itself, converses with the piece according to his personal means, nothing conditions nor limits the possibility of a reading, at the same time as it justifies the multiple realities within one single object. Feelings appear in the work, different elements, structures organized in different ways. In short the picture appears as an open space where the empathy of each individual can supply his or her own meaning. The result will be as diverse and varied as the vision itself. The brushstrokes transform themselves almost by magic into insects, stars, conveyor belts, landscapes seen close-up, microscopic worlds…

And when the picture is finished, before the equilibrium which the pieces display everything looks as if it’s where it has always been, as if the white canvas has never existed. This is the essence of art. In painting the freedom to believe in the light to reveal one’s understanding and share it with the world. As Pablo Rey has said, “The picture speaks to me, I see the mark there before I make it, it tells me where to place it. A dialogue begins between the creative spirit and what appears on the canvas. Not even a brushstroke is mine; it somehow appears in front of me.”