The eyes of Sharbat Gula

José Molina - The eyes of Sharbat Gula

In the unique retouché work The eyes of Sharbat Gula by José Molina, the face of Sharbat Gula is combined with a Lego body. The result is a contemporary heroine, belonging to the series A Hero Never Dies. 

Thanks to his artful use of colours, José Molina harmonizes the encounter between human face and Lego body. The three grounds forming the work’s meaning - subject, background and frame - follow one another in a continuum of red and green. Such tones orbit around the protagonist, enhancing her almost three-dimensional appearance. 

Sharbat Gula is the subject of “Afghan girl”, a famous photograph by Steve McCurry dating back to 1984. It was published on the cover of National Geographic Magazine in 1985. The picture became the symbol of the Afghan conflicts of the eighties. 

The eyes of Sharbat Gula is part of the series A Hero Never Dies. Molina abandons his former introspective attitude, prioritizing a pop and colorful approach. His aim is to beak the distance between contemporary heroes and the community, in order to prompt a reflection on the concept of heroism.

The retouché work The eyes of Sharbat Gula by José Molina was realized with mixed media on paper in 2021. It measures 72x64 cm. The measurements include the frame, which is conceived by the artist as an integral part of the work.

José Molina, The eyes of Sharbat Gula: Prices and Value 

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José Molina - The eyes of Sharbat Gula - 2021 - Unique piece - Retouché - Mixed media on paper 

JOSÉ MOLINA - BIOGRAPHY

José Molina, was born in Madrid in 1965, and lives in Como. From the age of 11, he started to study art in several art schools in Spain, proceeding with his studies until the second year at the Real Academia des Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.

At the same time, he starts to work in advertising, a passion he will follow until the age of 35, when he will decide to dedicate himself only to painting.

In 2004 José Molina open his first solo exhibition titled Morir para Vivir in Milano: an exhibition characterized by a profound self-examining and psychological research.

Between 2005 and 2007 Molina's analysis shift to the relationship between mankind and society, giving form to his second collection, Predatores. This series, "born from a dream", is exhibited at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia di Milano and curated by the art critic Vittorio Sgarbi.

For three years, Molina's artistic production is characterized by the stylistic choice of the black and white. In 2010, the artist decides to go back to the use of colors, realizing a series of 12 big oils on panel and titling it Cosas Humanas.

EXHIBITION PATH AND THEMES

Numerous are the Italian institutions which have had the luck of showing Molina Artworks:

• Milano: la Triennale, la Fondazione Stelline, la Fondazione Mudima, il Museo Poldi Pezzoli;
• Roma: la Real Academia de España;
• Caserta: Reggia di Caserta;
• Modena: Palazzo Ducale di Modena;
• Bressanone (BZ): Museo Civico di Bressanone

Molina's Works of Art have had a great eco also outside of Italy: they have been exhibited at the Gallery Able Fine Art in New York, in Miami at Context Art Fair and in several other locations in Asia. Molina's favorite theme is definitely the human figure, characterized by all its social, spiritual and instinctive facets. The description of the peculiarities of human life are a distinctive trait of Molina’s works.

Following, three collections that express Molina's anthropological reflection, from the relationship of human being with himself, to the way he/she decides to see him/herself and how to change.

MORIR PARA VIVIR - JOSÉ MOLINA

Death is a recurrent theme in José Molina production. Despite his secularism, he shares the thoughts expressed by the Ecclesiastes in the Holy Bible, for whom "there is a time to be born and a time to die".

This awareness and the acceptance of his destiny, allowed Molina to develop the theme of death in an active relation with life, avoiding skeptical and pessimistic tones. With the series Morir para Vivir, Molina reflects on humankind lethargy and on its ability to overcome weaknesses.

The nine chapters, in which the series Morir para Vivir is divided, focus on the passivity of the human being who does not practice free will, therefore willingly losing his possibility of choosing. Mankind let fears and inactivity to possess him, living silently and waiting resigned for the end. From the graphic point of view, with this series Molina has already demonstrated to have a personal and skilled style and trait.

The combination of different techniques, like the use of oil paint and ink sketches, expresses and objectifies Molina's personality, an artist that is both calm and anguished, balanced and expansive, introspective and extroverted.

JOSÉ MOLINA, PREDATORS: ALIENATION OR UNIVERSAL CONDITION?

The Spanish artist José Molina realizes thirty-seven characters as distorted human figures and with exaggerated features like teeth, noses and eyes. The protagonists are confused politicians dissuaded by the triviality of life, policemen who feel like gods, fish-men who escape wind-wheel in the sea but without knowing which direction they are taking.

Some human traits are associated to animals, like elephants, ants and also sperms, providing them with horrifying teeth. Naturally, anyone would feel unrelated and estranged to these characters. But, after a closer look, we do necessarily realize to be part of this collectivity.

In order to avoid this feeling of alienation imposed by these surreal creatures, it is necessary to understand that they represent and exaggerate situations that are common to everyone, and from which do not exist any escape. To destroy the uncertainty that reigns over humanity, it is necessary to be self-conscious, and also to be aware of the others and the world.

NATURE AS PERCEIVED BY MOLINA: COSAS HUMANAS

For José Molina, nature is the hold to which hold on to every time that humankind is in need of finding himself again. Molina believes that nature possesses the ability to bring back balance and armory in the frenzy lives of contemporary society.

With Cosas Humanas, Molina wants to pay a sincere homage to the beauty of this world, from which he takes the pure and bright colors. The works of the series are not many, but they are filled with significance and show the deep anthropological search developed by Molina.

At a first glance, the portrait of the collection Cosas Humanas can result as dark and distressing, but Molina's message has to be search in a metaphor. The eyes of men expand in a bi-dimensional glance that marks the transition from the eye that look at the past to the one which look at the future. With these works, Molina shows his conviction about the existence of salvation also for these controversial figures.

The only way for salvation is to find again a primordial connection with the nature that surrounds them, learning to communicate and share with the other all the wonders that nature has given to us.

The main characters of this collection are deformed and their proportions are not correct nor natural. The faces split like the reflections in the mirror of a fun fairs, or they are represented like wooden cortex from which the eyes pop out like glass. Oppositely to what one may think, the beauty of them can be found exactly in their deformity, in their agonizing look that asks for mercy.

THE PROFOUND ART OF JOSÉ MOLINA

Molina gave up his promising career in advertising because he felt oppressed by a sense of responsibility towards his counterparts. As a matter of fact, for Molina art is an instrument of interaction through which make available his research, both self-examining and antropological

With his visionary style, Molina manages to explode and investigate humanity, using surrealism as revealing language of hidden truths. Moreover, Molina usually combines his works with texts and thoughts that are functional for the understanding of the message hidden in his works.

MOLINA AND THE RETURN TO CAREFREENESS

Molina's artistic path is characterized by the analysis of the most secret aspects of the human soul and for the use of the black and white, which visually enhance their impression on the viewer. In the last series of works, titled A Hero Never Dies, Molina abandons the intense and profound tones and substitutes them with bright and vivid colors.

In this collection, Moline let himself to be inspired by a feeling of carefreeness, combining plastic Lego bodies with the faces of famous masterpieces of Western art, actors, singers superhero's and so on. The contrast between the expression of the faces and the stiffness of the bodies, given by the juxtaposition of the famous bricks, creates a significant short circuit. This new reading is a way to make his art accessible and communicative for everyone

The title of the series does not want to project these figures in a mythic world of heroes that does not belong to us, but rather to lead us to think about the very same concept of heroism in contemporary society. The ironic, and sometimes tender, context get the heroes of our times closer to the common people.

Freddie Mercury wears the dress of a queen and hold a mic-scepter; the Monna Lisa is an undisputed Wonder Woman, and the biblical David can't be nothing else but a young Superman, since he has been able to destroy such a strong enemy. In front of this paintings, we have the impression to be looking at surreal tarot cards: Queens, knights, soldiers, superheroes that each one is called to read and interpret in his/her own way.

José Molina: Artworks for sale with prices and value at Deodato Arte

For those interested in where to buy José Molina, Deodato Arte offers a selection of artworks by the artist for sale online.

If you are interested in knowing about José Molina's prices, values or which works will be on display at the Deodato Arte Contemporary Art Gallery, do not hesitate to contact us by sending an e-mail to [email protected].

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