Jorge Valdivia II
Jorge Valdivia was born in Ayacucho, Peru, and has been living in Germany for over three decades. Since a very young age he became interested in painting, and has always dedicated himself professionally to this activity. He evolved as artist in a permanente searching for his own expression, and reached a quality level which allowed him to enter the UNESCO International Association of Plastic Arts, located in Paris.
Alfonso Castrillon Vizcarra, art critic and Director of the Visual Arts Gallery of the Ricardo Palma University, refers himself to Jorge Valdivia as a painter with “a sophisticated refinement in the choice and handling of his images, and in resuming ancient practices such as glazing, he reveals an experimented technique exquisitely expressed in the enormous skill with which he handles the dresses and adornments of his figures, which state his sense of humanism and exalt his creative individuality. He places his characters in strange spaces and in extreme situations of absurd dialogue with birds, fish and reptiles, but his compositions are not improvised, they originate from the art of the past, from renowned figures and pieces from museum collections, denying them in an uneasy way, almost impertinent, highlighting the opposition between art and nature and showing that reality always imposes itself and contradicts traditions. Should we observe his art as surrealism or as magical realism?”
The Iberoamericano Pablo Neruda` s Poetry Winner, in 2006, Carlos Germán Belli dedicated a poem to Jorge Valdivia, published in the art magazine “Sibila 26” in January of 2008, which ends in this manner: “…De quien tiene delante un cuadro tuyo / Donde renace un clássico / Y el contemplador boquiaberto tórnase / En alguien que descubre al fin el arte.”
Carlos Germán Belli also stated… “Admiring Jorge Valdivia´s paintings implies a double action, such as contemplating the art of an ancient master and the art of a modern master: each one of his works is the representation of a canvas from the first, thanks to the keen brush of the second. However, this double knowledge converges into one thing only, the aesthetic thrill of the contemplator, as his retina is able to combine the alluring chromatics, the careful conception of the images – of others and his own – and the infinite amazement of it all. I believe that the admiration Jorge Valdivia professes for his renaissance masters is imposed on us by him, despite the fact that we can equally appreciate, with the same thrill, his own unique art. Amazement, by the gift of faithfully reproducing portrait models, and the boldness with which he oversteps them with the flame of his fantasy, and even by the way he surprises, showing us that styles from a distant past can constitute a starting point for another art, born thanks to the a painter so exquisite and imaginative, that few like him exist today."
Jorge Valdivia in the course of his artistic career has participated in various collective shows and individual expositions such as: 1998 – Peru National Museum, Lima; 1999 – Museum of the Americas, in San Juan, Porto Rico; 2001 – “Casa Hispano-Americana” in Milan and Abruzzo National Museum in Italy; 2001 – “HypoVereinsbank” in Mainz, Germany; 2003 – “Palazzos Comunales” in Calvi dell`Umbria and “Gualdo Tadino”, Italy; 2005 – “Millennium / BCP” in Lisbon, Portugal; 2006 – Latin Cultural Center in Dallas, USA; 2007 – Gallery of the Peruan Embassy in Washington, USA; 2008 – Visual Arts Gallery of the “Ricardo Palma” University in Lima, Peru. 2010 – “Allarts Gallery” in Lisbon, Portugal;
2011 – “Coliseu do Porto” in Oporto, Portugal; 2011 – “2011 Arte Lisboa” Contemporary Art Fair in Lisbon, Portugal.