José González Veites: Abstract Geometry

By Sybaris Collection

The work of José González Veites (Mexico City, 1957) is one of the most hidden treasures in Mexican art history. Although his paintings has been subjetc of several essays written by art critics and theorist as Teresa del Conde, Rita Eder or María Minera, no major solo exhibitions devoted to Veites have been made recently in Mexico. However, his technique and his concept of the painting reveals a both a deeply knowledge and interest about the canvas as a surface to define light, color and space.

González Veites studied Fine Arts at San Carlos Academy in Mexico City. He was always interested in the possibilities of the painting to create multiple forms and to turned the canvas into a space full of light. Curiosly, his first works were an early exploration about geometry with a monocrome palette.

After graduating from San Carlos, Veites traveled to Europe where he was in touch with the work of artists such as Carlos Cruz-Diez (Caracas, 1923 – Paris, 2019), Jesús Rafael Soto (Ciudad Bolívar, 1923 – Paris 2005), and Victor Vasarely (Pecs, 1906 – Paris, 1997), whose works—related with the Op-Art and Kinetic Art—influenced him on the relationship between geometry and color. Since then, Veites understood that geometry isn’t always or necessarily perfect, and allowed his brush-strokes to flow along with the painting process.

In this sense, for Veites the act of painting is a process that is constantly changing and guided by the canvas. While he is painting, accidents or the unexpected are key elements in the composition of his works. That is why we can see in his work organical  lines, forms, squares, rectangles, triangles, etcetera. Actually, it is through accidents that Veites exposes forms as pictorical gestures.

His artistic process is very particular: he starts from nothing, because the canvas is kind of a blank sheet ready to be written, colored, transformed. Then he divides the surface by drawing lines which traces the outside and inside, the top and the bottom. Finally, the color he had in mind from the beginning defines the geometries and give a sense of depth even when there are no perspective.

The work of José González Veites has been exhibited both at national and international level, in galleries and museums such as the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MACO) in Oaxaca, Gallery Rahn in Zurich, Galerie Christiane Koeune in Luxemburg, and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Yucatán (MACAY), among others. His paintings are part of public and private collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Art Museum (MET) in New York.