OPENING EXHIBITION
ATCHUGARRY THE COLLECTOR
It is said that someone who buys a work of art to hang on their wall at home does so for a number of reasons. Not least of these is the desire to stop others seeing what they have left behind of themselves in the composition (their gaze, sensitivity and spirit) after looking at it and being seduced by it. Sometimes, and to varying degrees, this attitude can make a collector feel as if they have played a creative role in the piece they have acquired. If this concept applies to all or even just some of the mere mortals who take possession of a picture or sculpture, what can be said about an artist who collects the works of other artists? When this happens, the reasoning becomes more complex and varied.
When we look at the works collected over the decades by Pablo Atchugarry, the prevailing belief is that his aim has been to combine his own history, or rather his cultural and emotional origins, with certain affinities of thought or creative behaviour (although not necessarily concretely realised) regarding artists from the same period. This original flow may be transformed into a journey, perhaps only an idea, brimming with interesting points of convergence.....
LUCIANO CAPRILE - Art Critic