In a 2002 essay on the re-release of Juan Rulfo’s surrealist novel, Pedro Páramo, published with 50 of Josephine Sacabo’s hand-toned, oil-washed silver gelatin prints, Mexican literary eminencia Elena Poniatowska wrote:
“It is clear they are not the work of an illustrator but rather of an illuminata.
“If photography elevates the mastery of light to the level of art, and if a literary masterpiece illuminates a universe of characters, one may conclude that the two series of images by Rulfo and Sacabo are an apprehension of ghosts, a confrontation of darkness with shadows that resist and spurn the distant light of both artists — for light does not wield the power of shadows.”
Sacabo’s powerful, precise dominion over shadow and light will grace the walls of the Fine and Performing Arts Gallery at Texas A&M International University with THE RIGHT TO DREAM - regreso a mi pueblo, which opens with a reception Friday, August 28th from 6 to 8 p.m.
“We are honored to bring Josephine Sacabo to the city where her life began and to exhibit art from five significant bodies of work over her 50-year career,” said Alyssa Cigarroa, founder of Daphne Art Foundation. “A great deal of planning on Ms. Sacabo’s part and our collaboration with TAMIU and artist and printmaker Jesse Shaw bear the promise of an exciting subjective, introspective exhibit,” she added.
The five series from which the exhibit is comprised are TAGGED – 2018; Barking at God – 2017; Juana and the Structures of Reverie – 2015; Óyeme con Los Ojos – 2011; and El Mundo Inalcanzable de Susana San Juan -1997.
Sacabo’s Artist’s Talk, which is scheduled for Thursday, August 27, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the TAMIU Academic Innovation Center, is open to the public. TAMIU art students will have the opportunity to attend two photogravure demonstrations led by New Orleans artist and master printer Meg Turner, one of Sacabo’s longtime printers.
Of her homecoming, Sacabo said, “I am thrilled to share my life’s work with the place where it all began. It means so much to come home for this exhibition, and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to show my family and friends what I have done with my life.”
Asked about the intensity and drive she commits to her work, she answered, “I have never stopped working. I have continued to create a new body of work approximately every two years, each leading to a new exhibition. During that time, I have also published thirteen books. Most of my work has been based on things I have read and wanted to express in pictures. I have been strongly influenced by literature, especially the writings of Clarice Lispector, Rainer Maria Rilke, Baudelaire, Pedro Salinas, Vicente Huidobro, Juan Rulfo, Mallarmé, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.”
Her Artist Statement offers this concise assessment of her relationship to her work: “I believe in Art as a means of transcendence and connection. My images are simply what I have been given. I hope they have done justice to their sources, and that they will, for a moment, ‘stay the shadows of contentment too short lived.’ (Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz).”
Several of Sacabo’s books will be available for purchase in the gallery, including the recent Luna Press release of El Mundo Inalcanzable de Susana San Juan.
Over the five decades of her career, Sacabo’s work has been featured in galleries and museum exhibits in the U.S., Mexico, and Europe and is included in numerous public and private collections, including the George Eastman House, New Orleans Museum of Art, the International Center of Photography, and the Bibliothèque Nationale.
THE RIGHT TO DREAM - regreso a mi pueblo closes October 9th.
