Two years ago, L'Espai d'Art Joan Castejón de participació estetica opened its doors in the city of Dénia, a place dedicated to the universe of the artist, where a selection of his work is shown and where diverse cultural and artistic manifestations also take place. To celebrate this anniversary, a real party has been organized, an exhibition of one of the great masters of fantastic art, José Hernández, whom Joan Castejón esteems and admires so much and "who is one of the artists who best dialogues with his work through many reasons, such as the technique or the theme that works”, stressed Carlos Arenas, curator of the exhibition, at the opening ceremony that took place yesterday at the House of Culture.
The exhibition "The reason for the dream", which can be visited until December 10, shows a selection of 55 works by Hernández, carefully selected by his daughter, Ana, and which is very complete to bring us closer to the work of the painter, engraver , illustrator, set designer and costume designer born in the international zone of Tangier in 1944 and died in 2013 in Malaga. Original drawings, mostly "never seen in theaters before", engravings and oil paintings with different themes: posters about films by Luis Buñuel and works related to theater and literature, such as those inspired by Kafka's The Metamorphosis, but also images of masks and dictators.
“Hernández is an artist difficult to pigeonhole, he always went against the current. His work is very personal and poetic and the fantastic occupies a very important place. Fantastic art and evasions, but there is much beyond, there is a very deep and disturbing reflection on the times we live in”, sums up Carlos Arenas.
The sample has been distributed in two rooms of the House of Culture of Dénia. At L'Espai d'Art Joan Castejón we will see eleven pieces “that dialogue directly with Castejón's work”. The rest of the works that make up the exhibition are exhibited in the room on the first floor.
At yesterday's inauguration there were also words of thanks. from the mayor, Vicent Grimalt, for Ana Hernández, "for selflessly giving up her father's work for this project"; Joan Castejón, "for his involvement in the cultural life of the city"; and for Carlos Arenas, curator of “this magnificent exhibition”.
Joan Castejón, for his part, expressed his "absolute gratitude" to the Hernández family, the Dénia City Council, Carlos Arenas and the staff of the House of Culture for making this "exhibition of high quality that cannot stay in Dénia possible, but it must be disseminated both in the region and beyond”.
And, above all, his thanks to José Hernández, to whom he dedicates these words in the exhibition catalogue:
"Master, I thank you for dying and being reborn
in each stage of your work and that you continue
floating, life above on the bark of an immense
crustacean and stop a little in Dénia, to
so show you and remember you so closely.”
