José Luis Lopez - Canticle of the Creatures

As the title suggests, the work is inspired by the famous "Canticle of the Creatures," composed by Saint Francis of Assisi around 1224. It is the oldest known poetic work in Italian literature, and its text unfolds as a passionate praise to God through His creation. Just as the Canticle is explained as a list of God's creations, so each individual panel in José Luis Lopez's work is inspired by each element cited by Saint Francis. In each representation, the artist reproduces the verses of the Canticle that inspired the panel.

Since St. Francis's "Canticle of the Creatures" is inspired by the beauty of creation as a celebration and thanksgiving for God's love for humanity, the aesthetic adopted by José Luis Lopez in composing this work also takes on a decidedly elemental character. The representation of the sun, fire, earth, water, and wind is thus expressed through highly symbolic representations that take on a powerfully spiritual allure, certainly inspired by medieval mysticism, yet with a thoroughly modern sensibility. The intense blue space that encompasses the various representations contributes significantly to achieving this evocation. These figures stand out as geometric figures whose perfection reaffirms the sacred nature of the work, and thus we find rectangles, squares, triangles, and figures inscribed within circles with gold borders. Within these geometric fields, José Luis López conceives symbolic representations of natural elements with a remarkable creativity that allows him, starting from the figurative element, to arrive at a suggestive symbolic abstraction through his expressionist pictorial language. The polychromy used is exquisite, balancing the blue tones in a close dialogue with the gold.

José Luis Lopez was born in Tenerife in 1958, where he began his studies in the Fine Arts, which he later completed in Barcelona. While still a student, he attended a Lindsay Kemp course and experimented with set design and direction for theater, film, television, and rock concerts, before landing in the field of his full artistic fulfillment: opera. For the Tenerife Opera Friends Association, he designed the sets for Madama Butterfly, La Sonnambula, Un Ballo in Maschera, L'Impresario delle Isole Canarie, The Fairy Queen, and L'Italiana in Algeri. While producing La Butterfly, he met tenor Gianfranco Pastine, who commissioned him to direct the 1995 production of Carmen in Japan and the Italian version. The following year, he directed La Traviata. His Italian career continued in Bari, Viterbo, Fabriano, Pavia, and Rome. He has worked with Katia Ricciarelli, Gabriella Tucci, Maria Guleghina, Miwako Matsumoto, Gianni Raimondi, Piero Cappuccilli, Paolo Montarsolo, Jaime Aragall, and William Matteuzzi. He is the Artistic Director of the "Arteria Arte Italia" Cultural Association.

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