Jara López Sastre: the harshness of looking

The Ateneo de Madrid hosts the first solo exhibition of the artist Jara López Sastre, 'What remains after the gaze'. Inside the Laffón room, a curtain unfolds that holds the oils painted by Jara in his New York studio. From the beginning, the curatorial arrangement of the exhibition anticipates the concept of intimacy, on which the pictorial proposal is articulated.

Born in Madrid and settled in the Big Apple, Jara completed her artistic studies in places such as London Fine Arts, Boston College and New York University. The work arrives for the first time in Madrid after having been presented in dozens of group exhibitions in the United States.

This project takes as reference the Dutch genre painting of Gerard Ter Borch, specifically in his 'Ladies in Satin'. These scenes, loaded with ambiguity and symbolism, warn of the woman's status as a sexual object from the silk of her dresses.

Jara, starting from Ter Borch's women, explores the figure of women and their representation in art, focusing on the gaze of the voyeur. Painting, therefore, becomes a vehicle for reflection on "the hard mark left by looking". Likewise, literature plays a special role in the exhibition. For the artist, the power of the image must be combined with the power of the word, and in this case he does so through a poem that takes as its title the name of the exhibition.

The visitor – as an active observing subject – is invited to participate in this dialogue of reflection on the intimate nature of the act of observing; on the hardness of looking.

The exhibition can be visited from 14 to 20 October and will have the presence of the artist in the room. Undoubtedly, a perfect opportunity to delve deeper into her work and dialogue with her before her return to New York.

Erect postures between vertical furniture figures

ceremonials dressed in yesterday's skins.

They dress in satin

They wear new skins

The ability to anticipate that veils a curtain

the veils that anticipate the skin

how much is hidden and how much is revealed

when skins confront new skins

other skins, new bodies.

The soft caress of satin

that sits on the skin, rubs with tenderness.

The delicate act of touching. The touch that consumes the intimacy of an unsuspecting body.

Bodies with the capacity of a curtain.

The contortion of the folds that see us.

Satin that reveals the intimacies of yesterday's skin

she presents herself naked to be seen, to be consumed

In this new ceremony that resists being confused by yesterday's ceremony.

The posture is no longer held erect, The curtains are relaxed

Calm skin even aware of being seen

it accommodates the obsessive gaze of the one who lurks behind the satin veils

The look that by remaining hidden anticipates

the excessive desire for a skin

the distance between two bodies

the look that drags desire, and on another skin

The rough footprint left by looking.

Having been seen

Jara López Sastre , What remains after the look.