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By: Orlando Hernández Ying Ph.D.
Eduardo Navarro stands out among Panamanian masters as a champion of expressionism in the contemporary scenario of the new millennium. The artist explores his creativity through multiple disciplines such as painting, sculpture, performance art, and installations to create works with a uniquely rebellious visual impact and accomplished metaphors. Famous for his expressionist brushstroke, Navarro is slightly more anchored in naturalistic forms. His subjects are endowed with a supernatural and, at times, otherworldly power. His works command our attention through these powerful subjects. He does this daringly, creating fierce figures that simultaneously attract and repel the viewer, reminding us of the dark, hallucinatory work of Francis Bacon (1909-1992). It is impossible not to have an emotional reaction to the work.
After winning the Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño’s 1994 International August Salon Prize in Bogota, –one of the most prestigious in Colombia– his career has progressed steadily. At first glance Navarro’s work has favored the theme of the macabre and the agony of solitary souls. Among the figures that spring out of Navarro’s dark backgrounds are his “fire angels” and the heartrending, open-mouthed torsos with outstretched or elongated arms that allow us a glimpse of their visceral, agonizing interiors (1996).
Navarro’s work can be appreciated on several levels. At the local level, his work from the 90’s uses a contemporary expressionistic language to recall the demonic figures typical of the “diablicos limpios y sucios,” popular devil dances in the Panamanian countryside representing the cosmic battle between good and evil. In fact, the open jaws, bat wings, and the red and black striped patterns that prevail in his work subtly evoke the dancers’ attire, as in his painting, La Reina de Carnaval (Carnival Queen) (1997). The artist’s message, however, goes much deeper, and establishes no relationship with the precepts of Costumbrismo in the representation of these folkloric manifestations.
Seen in the Latin American context, the clamor of these subjects –exhibited alongside poems written by the artist that corroborate our interpretation– are cries of protest from individuals rejected by society, victims of the iniquity present in the socieities to which they belong. They are also our own inner cries, the ones we experience alone, like the ones in the expressionistic masterpieces of Edvard Munch (1863-1944). This roar that tears the immortal silence of the canvas links Navarro’s work to the raw monumentality of the great Latin American modernist painters, making him the Panamanian version of these great masters.
On a universal level, this howl is the unison voice of all those who suffer war, loneliness, misery, and discrimination. The images support each other audaciously, –and here is where the painter’s genius lies– in the ferocity with which the pigment is applied onto the surface. The artist uses his brushstrokes to render his very soul before us.
This is where Navarro achieves extreme artistic sophistication, balancing content with form, with the latter providing the emotional backbone to the idea of the former, subtly and quietly upstaging it. Works of this stature, such as La Sala de Espera (The Waiting Room) earned him a Bronze Medal at the 1996 Osaka Triennial.
Navarro is currently perhaps best known for his unbridled steeds full of energy, a subject he has been exploring for some 17 years. The artist continues to innovate, however, by using printed fabrics to add another layer of texture to these explosively virile wild beasts, once again exhibiting his uncontrolled balance between background and form.
But the horse is simply a pretext for Eduardo Navarro to explore his expressionist energy. What better animal to represent the spiritual freedom and rebellion in the splashes of the artist’s brush than a galloping horse? What better form of life can oppose to the dramatic weight of his human figures than an unfettered stallion?
Recently, the artist has been invited to New York to take part in the Residency Unlimited Program for artists and curators, organized by the Rockefeller Foundation. This opportunity not only places Navarro once again in the epicenter of the artistic world, but also provides him with an opportunity to exchange criticism and secure support for the production and management of his works.
Considering his important trajectory, Navarro is one of Panama’s most ingenious living artists. When inserting his work in the universal discourse of art, given its expressionistic vigor, I regard his horses as 21st-century cave paintings. Through their representation, both the cavemen of 15,000 years ago and Navarro reveal their innermost emotional selves and use powerful brushstrokes to explore the indomitable power of freedom in the shape of a steed.