José Miguel Pereñíguez at Rafael Ortiz

Artist: José Miguel Pereñíguez

Exhibition title: ACMÉ

Venue: Rafael Ortiz, Seville, Spain

Date: November 15 – December 31, 2016

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Rafael Ortiz, Seville

I first read the Greek word acme in the biography of a figure of the antiquity. It was said that he had his acme at a certain time. This expression is used when a person’s birth date is not certain, and instead, what we identify is the most documented period of their life, activity and success. This is encapsulated in the term acme. It is typically understood that a person’s acme is around the age of 40.

Just as many other words of the Greek language, acme refers, in its origin, to a specific concept: the physical reality of things (“the point or edge of an object” according to the very convenient Wikipedia), but it embraces a richer and wider variety of meanings. Apart from the abovementioned meaning, it can also be used to refer to the highest point, or point of maximum splendour of a certain thing, the most decisive moment of a certain event or representation, or even the peak period of incidence of a certain disease.

This exhibition lies under the scope of the word acme, as a way of bringing together a diverse material. Its most literal meaning allows us to include works in which precision as well as technique and formality taken to their extreme are the most present values. It is also a chance to look back at the culture of origin of the term, Ancient Greece, and trace in its representations the plenitude that is treasured and regarded from our present as “classic”, despite its ambiguity and paradoxes. Finally, going back to its biographic meaning, and grasping the fact that the author seems to be reaching his acme, a veil of irony about maturity and its associated physical, mental and material consequences extends over this exhibition.

-José Miguel Pereñíguez, October, 2016