Alex Barnils

Battles in the Emptiness

Tijana Titin´s work has its roots in the Renaissance and Mannerism, and it´s been influenced by the Baroque and some artists of the twentieth century. The Mannerism, with its free naked and half-naked figures in complex positions, inspires Titin´s light and eternal beings. In this regard, I would like to mention some artists and works from this period, like El Greco (Baptism of Christ ); Tiziano ( The Abduction of Europe ); Corregio ( Parma´s Cathedral dome ) or Tintoretto ( The Origin of the Milky Way ). Therefore, the Baroque, that has been described by philosopher Eugenio Trias like the “teatral escenification of the infinity”, offers her some sources like Maulbertsch, Baciccio or Poussin, among others.

Like an infinite receptacle that involves the bodies –always possessed by distress, impotence and pain- this space drugs them sometimes to a curious state of lust, almost bordering death. During these “battles” in the emptiness, the bodies are not being altered or mutilated, they don’t became uglier, they are just being fragmented, and their hidden parts seem to get lost in this “infinity” the Baroque tried to represent. This affinity with the fragmentation leads us to Michelangelo, who, in a different way, proposed beings trying to get rid of their imperfect bodies and achieve their soul´s unity.

The way the artist uses the colors is not naive. On the contrary, she knows the effect they cause on the human retina, and achieves intense contrasts. Her paintings usually have a predominant color, as we can appreciate on the serial of the Battlefields (Orange Battlefield, Yellow Battlefield and Violet Battlefield ). Beyond, big part of her work uses a color as a main character, like red in Mouse cat why that and Holy red painting. On the other side, Apocalyptic laughter, just to mention one, represents a chromatic chaos, and that disorder becomes evil, as it prints color spots in those “skies” or empty spaces, that sometimes run into the suspended figure, and other times even bolt it down.

Alex Barnils, January 2010
Translation from Spanish: Betiana Bellofatto