Review: Jesús Monge Cebolla

Jesús Monge Cebolla is a many-sided artist whose career begins in the 70s, close to the Forma group. Early on he painted some abstract pictures (who would have guessed, looking at his artwork today!), but he couldn't find a creative line that satisfied him. So he turned to design and interior decoration, working for decades with important architects. But one fine day he decided to take up his artistic passion again, full time…

Adam and Eve were black

They were the stars of his last exhibition in Zaragoza. Two large-format artworks (90 x 210 cm.) depicting Adán and Eva after Dürer's model, one of the artists most admired by the painter born in Godojos. But something important has changed with respect to Dürer's work.

This pair of paintings surely still stirs up controversy among some of its viewers. Depicting a black Adam and Eve would have been grounds for severe punishment in Dürer's day, but times have changed. Although the argument between creationists and evolutionists isn't as settled as many believe, to deny at this point that the origin of the human being lies in evolution, and that this evolution has its point of reference in Africa, is to turn your back on scientific evidence.

Jesús Monge's Adam and Eve make for a striking, provocative artwork which is not, however, the Aragonese painter's favourite…

Hyperrealist landscapes and seascapes

«I'm much more interested in Vista de Covadonga or those paintings where you can see the foam, the pools the water leaves behind, the sand». Monge doesn't disown his black Adam and Eve, but he's aware that it's an odd bird within his output, which centres on hyperrealist landscape.

Once Monge had enough artworks he looked for a space to exhibit, and ran into the gallery owners' lack of interest. A painter and friend from his youth suggested he rent a room himself. And that's what he did at the end of 2013. That was how he made his name in Zaragoza. His first solo exhibition was built around landscapes of his own city, such as Coso de Zaragoza or Niebla en Zaragoza, but the following year his gaze opened out to other places: Madrid, Asturias, Venice, Andalusia, etc.

And that's how the Aragonese artist conceives his most appealing paintings: the seascapes. Artworks like Charcos de marea or Huellas en la arena shine for the fantastic way they catch light, direct and reflected in all sorts of ways by the water and the sand. The viewer isn't just gripped by the visual beauty, but (almost) able to smell the salt and feel the breeze mess up their hair. Pure synaesthesia.

Some say hyperrealism is a minor style, or one that's been left behind, but that's not what plenty of art lovers or ordinary viewers say, and their interest in this kind of artwork keeps hyperrealism fully alive in exhibitions and galleries.

The atmosphere, the context and the feeling

«I'm not so worried about realism, I'm a painter of emotions». Monge implicitly rejects the idea that hyperrealism is an empty style, a mere copy of a photograph. Art establishes secret links with the soul through associations that are, most of the time, irrational. A painting like Bosque de Carintia doesn't move you because of its technical accuracy, but because of the personal association the viewer builds with the artwork through their feelings, memories and projections.

The same can be said of his urban landscapes, in which Monge tries to capture «the atmosphere, the context and the feeling», as he himself has put it. Día de lluvia en Alcalá shows his interest in reflections on wet streets which, like those paintings by Pisarro, wrap the viewer in nostalgia.

In the line of painters like Antonio López or Robert Neffson, the artist born in Godojos walks through cities hoping to find the perfect corner in which to paint the light. Calle Cádiz (Madrid) or Pza. República Argentina are good examples of this search for the impression of light.

Someone in Zaragoza has called him the 'Canaletto of Movera'… And it's true that Jesús Monge, being a good landscape painter with an interest in light and water, couldn't resist Venice either (Azul terciopelo).

While the Aragonese painter prepares his third solo exhibition, we'll stay here strolling through the Atardecer de Alcalá…