Jaume Rocamora

The artist

Dialogue of Media
1990
87 x 121 cm
Charcoal drawing on handmade paper

On the sheet of handmade paper, the stroke opts for parallel and oblique lines that provide dynamism, forming a visual fabric. The charcoal and the soft cellulose blending stick because the grays to gain tones in two directions, from shadow to dark black, with a cadence measured by the symmetry of the whole. Particularly remarkable is the chiaroscuro that develops from the two lateral sides of the paper to the narrow, oblique white stripes. The work, analyzed from one side to the other or from top to bottom, begins and ends in the same way. It could continue beyond its limits to infinity.

The artist

(1946, Tortosa, Catalunya)

Rocamora’s work, of absolute geometric abstraction, is based on the symmetry and materiality of the media used. The title considers the work as the result of a conversation between the qualities of the paper handmade by the artist, the characteristics of the charcoal with which he works and the manual work itself. The geometry places the viewer in front of a topography defined by the media. The white delimits the space and makes it possible to organize the whole, while the warmth of the materials awakens a tactile desire that leads the viewer to approach the work. The author makes his drawings with traditional and craft techniques, considering learning as the tool that permanently expands what is possible in the world of creative contribution. The presentation of his plastic grammar took place in 1978, at the Ateneu Barcelonès in the exhibition Els Cartrons i Rocamora , where he first proposed a geometric painting that he has not abandoned to this day. His technique is fundamentally based on the use of cardboard, which he works by cutting, gluing and forming structures of different reliefs, with a predominance of the broken line and plane, within constructivist parameters. In this sense, the first series stand out ( Matèries primes , 1978; Sistemes compositivs , 1987; Encaix concloent , 1993).