Something about the Javier Calleja show at Almine Rech has gotten under my puppet fur: I keep asking myself to define rigor in art, & if it’s absolutely necessary. Rigor separates art from mere wall decor, does it not? So: can cartoons be rigorous?
By presenting a show like this, it begs such a question. We’ve become so accustomed to art that is nothing BUT rigor & experimentation, material explorations ad hominem, casting so far out on a limb that the original impetus becomes rather flimsy & teetering. So when we encounter pictures that pull us back into the joy of art, color, shape, texture, such as Calleja’s impish characters, there is almost a sense of childish guilt at the simple delight of being in the bright presence of something so shamelessly cute.
Cute is an effect, a choice, perhaps even a vision. If the Renaissance & ye old Academy was concerned with beauty, turning the collective Western mythology of Christianity & the stories from Olympus into humanist visions ecstatic at the wonders of human capability, then the modern world’s contemplation of pop culture & cartoons (our mythology, I would posit, is formed from the Saturday morning cartoons that shaped us as children & formulated, for better or worse, our culture’s moral compass) leads to the urge toward cute as a kind of contemporary access to transcendence through the ordinary. Right?
It’s possible. They seem to be hiding something, these meticulously balanced characters with their big, watery eyes, half-grins, & simplistic pronouncements of “Just Be You” & “Hold On”. Their hair renders them into earthy elves, mischief creatures that, were they suddenly to come to life, would definitely be immediately in a naive kind of trouble. Indeed, the fact that the life-size sculpture is in an orange jumpsuit implies a prison sentence. Perhaps an exuberance so bright & wild feels imprisoned by existing only in the inanimate. Perhaps. Perhaps they wouldn’t get into trouble at all, but instead would head to the nearest barber & unpack the secrets of the universe, which are definitely hidden somewhere in their hair.
—The Art Fart
‘One true tree for…’ is on view at Almine Rech is on view November 8 — December 14, 2024 in New York.