Victor Quiroga – The Magic-maker

Victor Quiroga wanted another painter to approach his work so he called renowned Argentine artist Luís Felipe Noe to write a few lines…

“…I would like to talk about his art and not his “literature” something which at a first glance, dominates his art, for we have here a painter with an ever present theme in his work: the mythical reality of his context in his native province of Tucuman.

The high level of communication inherent in Quiroga’s work results from the artist’s illustrative strength, that abstract dimension in his gift for telling stories with pictures. In that fleeting moment between the painting and the eye of the spectator, that which predominates in Quiroga’s art, is the atmosphere created by his particular approach to space and color:  it makes a big impact on the observer and becomes the messenger of the “story” it tells. Light resonates and substance senses in such a way that they mobilize the thousands of different tones that characterize his painting and his poetic vision of everyday life in the humble, superstitious village living in fear of  what lies “beyond”.

This is as present as the most concrete aspects of the animal, mineral and plant worlds. If Guy de Maupassant used to say that all “realism is an illusion”, than we could also conclude that magic is part of real life.

Victor Quiroga is as realistic as he is a magician but he conjures up his magic through tricks that are absolutely illustrative and personal.  That combination between virtual space, saturated color and a poetic vision of a world where myths are implicated in every-day life define his work and defy the prejudice against literature in art.

And, if Quiroga emerges triumphant from this challenge, it is because he knows that the secret behind the mystery in his painting lies mainly in his ability to connote rather than denote.

Luís Felipe Noe