Barrio Escalante, San José

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Variación del Tema, by Julio Le Parc. A vertical beam of light cuts through the darkness, organizing every element of the space with absolute rigor.

Julio Le Parc

Variación del Tema

Year
1984
Technique
Screen Print
Dimensions
99 × 75 cm
Status
Available
Palette
cadmium yellow, amber orange, reddish brown, dark brown, raw umber
Brushwork
Silkscreen ink applied in flat layers and fine gradations with imperceptible halftone screen.

Curatorial analysis

A vertical beam of light cuts through the darkness, organizing every element of the space with absolute rigor. At the top apex, a flat, incandescent yellow disc projects a descending conical column that traverses the central structure before landing upon a spherical body at the base. This lower sphere, rendered with continuous volumetric modeling that shifts from golden brilliance to deep shadow, appears to receive the physical impact of the upper radiation, anchoring the entire composition through a fictitious yet convincing gravity.

In the intermediate section, a series of horizontal bands confined within a thin linear boundary breaks its parallelism, sagging in a sinuous downward bend. This curve, resembling a suspended catenary or an elastic membrane subjected to gravitational pull, does not merely introduce a fluid rhythm against the rigidity of the frame: it divides the chromatic reading into two opposing behaviors. While the left portion of the ribbons darkens into tones of rust, wine, and burnt earth as it sinks into the concavity, the right side and the area intersected by the vertical ray burst into pure oranges and highly saturated yellows.

This overlapping of planes produces a singular optical vibration. The screen print resolves the gradients with millimetric precision, wherein tonal transitions replace thick matter, allowing light to function simultaneously as volume, transparency, and physical phenomenon. The neutral, deep brownish background erases any recognizable spatial reference, transforming the surface into a dark chamber where two distinct temporalities coexist: the instantaneous trajectory of the ray and the slow, suspended fall of the undulating bands.

Variación del Tema

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