Manuel Hernandez

"I am interested in the unexpected, the timeless, that which touches us and moves on, being and non-being, the open interpretation that awakens the sensibility of the encounter" Manuel Hernandez, a point of reference in the history of abstract art in Colombia, died on October 1st at the age of 86. His work, marked by a faithful commitment to its own signs, is a memorable peak in the country´s artistic tradition. Born in 1928 in Bogota, Hernandez studied in Universidad Nacional´s school of Fine Arts, the Academia de Bellas Artes in Santiago de Chile (in the 1940s), the Rome Fine Arts Academy, and the Art Student´s League in New York City. He took part in groups like Taller 9 and Nueva Generación, and was a teacher at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Bogota and a director of the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Ibagué. While early in his career he focused on figurative works, Hernandez quickly moved towards the search for an abstract language, distilling a proposal with its own unmistakable identity and renouncing in its forms to any reference to nature. Hernandez leaves behind a vast legacy of versatile, well-balanced compositions whose elements sustain a dialog at the mid point between rationality and emotion. Important to note alongside his paintings are his drawings, especially for his ability to experiment with the line. As the artist put it: "Mi painstaking research is evident in my drawings. In those small shifts when a line becomes thicker or its contour changes. Each shift is a versatility, a consistency or a shape that appears... The plane and nothingness, earliest challenges, encounter and selection, doubt, anxiety and emotion, the fury to capture what is, it is all that and more, on always captures, meditates, traverses, assumes the touch in order to have it be (...) That and more is drawing, the cutting edge of the soul, a timeless, precise encounter, it is there without a human explanation but real and infinite". (1) Hernandez received several recognitions. In 1961, he won First Prize in Painting at the 13th National Salon with his oil Flores en blanco y rojo. In 1967 he received a mention in the Medellin Ibero-American Painting Biennial. At the 20th National Artists Salon, in 1969, where he presented Pintura I -Insignia and Pintura II -Elementos para un símbolo, he was declared out of contest because of his excellence. He also received the Order of Boyacá medal and the Ministry of Culture´s Gran Orden medal, and in 2006 he was awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by Universidad de Antioquia. In 2007, Hernandez donated 160 of his works on paper for the inauguration of the Museo de Artes Visuales of the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogota. This year, the Cali section of Banco de la República presented an exhibition of his works, titled Manuel Hernandez: el camino de la abstracción. Next October 16th, Hernandez will be the object of a tribute, with an exhibition of some of his drawings at La Esquina gallery, in Bogota. Note (1) In Manuel Hernandez, a publication of the Ministry of Culture on the occasion of the National Homage given to the artist in 1998.