Magazine Article

Most of us, my school of Architecture students, discovered Erns Gombrich through another unforgettable professor, Joaquín Lorda. It was my pleasure to know recently two artist such as Antonio Santurio y Fernando Montero de Espinosa. It is in studios such as theirs where art is produced and later studied on. The best luck for both.

Whenever I find myself in the position of having to write a very long email simply because I lacked the time to write a shorter one, I have made it a habit to explain it in precisely this straightforward manner—though, in this era of rushing toward who knows where, there will always be those who fail to grasp it.
This apparent contradiction encapsulates a most valuable lesson—one that anyone dedicated to the arts, in any of their forms or manifestations, understands and feels with particular clarity: the artist is acutely aware of the immense effort, time, and dedication required to synthesize or execute something beautiful. This is understood as an expressive synthesis wherein the simpler it appears on the surface, the more intense is the expression of beauty it condenses. The unforgettable Professor Ernst Gombrich articulated this idea, broadening its scope in a truly inimitable fashion: “…there will always be artists—men and women—blessed with the marvelous gift of balancing forms and colors until they strike the perfect note; and—what is rarer still—endowed with an integrity of character that is never satisfied with half-measures, but rather demonstrates a readiness to forgo all easy effects and all superficial success in favor of the arduous effort and creative agony inherent in sincere work. Artists, we believe, will always exist. Yet whether Art itself remains a living reality depends, in no small measure, upon us—its audience. Through our indifference or our interest, through our prejudices or our understanding, it is we who will determine its continuity. It falls to us to ensure that the thread of tradition remains unbroken, and that opportunities are afforded to artists to enrich that precious strand of pearls which constitutes our heritage from the past.” Recently, I had the pleasure of crossing paths with two remarkable individuals and artists: Antonio Santurio and Fernando Montero de Espinosa. Both possess a solid academic foundation in the Fine Arts, yet remain fully independent in their creative practice, working at full capacity in their respective studios. As we shared a slice of life together and conversed passionately about art, we recalled this profound insight from the great Viennese-British master. We realized that, whether painting or sculpting, drawing or designing, we share a common experience: it is in these acts of creation that we find our happiness. A happiness found not in savoring illusions, but in combating disillusionments and in facing—with optimism—the inexorable mediocrity of existence. Xavier Chérrez, Architect