The facial features are ethnic.  The skin colors are the earth tones of earth cultures, the color of clay. These might be the Aztecs or Mayas of Marin’s native Mexico, who have suffered the loss of their golden empire.  If these are the faces of the Native people of Mexico, they have been shaped in the style of Spanish Baroque sculpture. Possibly they speak for many people of the world who have too quickly and too violently been pressed into the modern age.

There are aspects of Marin’s art that are modern.  But there are distinctions. Artists such as Duchamp, DeKooning, Kitaj, Pollock, Beuys, Hesse and Kienholz, point to the irony of modernity. Not long ago, the human condition was considered beautiful, tragic and heroic. That ended with Rodin, smashed by the Fauves and Cubists among many others.  In spite of our self-proclaimed rise to the summit of civilization, modern art addresses perversity, decay, degradation, insecurity and despair. Consumerism defines our social status and gives us purpose. Incongruous with our achievements and symptomatic of our decline, we are told, “Go shopping”.  In effect, what we own is who we are. What if, instead, we were defined by our ability to provide protection, bounty and wisdom, as was the case with the indigenous people of Mexico?

Clay is an extremely smart choice of medium for this work. Clay has qualities of fragility under tension and great strength under pressure, so it suggests conflicting duality by its nature. Clay is the earth. It is used in these sculptures to represent people with a very intimate and sophisticated relationship with the earth. For those same cultures, terra-cotta sculpture was pervasive and held a place of distinction. Clay has the right color, feel and association and is key to the success of Javier Marin’s expression.

As I look at these ceramic sculptures, I am impressed, literally pressed, by their emanation of power and beauty. Marin has found a way to make the atmosphere ripple with emotion. It has to do with his skill with the clay, anatomy, distortion and scale. But Marin’s ability to animate space goes beyond his technical skill. It is the mysterious and defining aspect of a master that he is able to use the medium of clay to enliven the space it occupies.

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