Collages with “country flavor”

The artist Iván Fuster illustrates poems by his father, Francisco Fuster, written during his military service in the 1960s

«On the essence of this moment / eternal. / About the indefinable / the seriousness of things / never heard / by you. / Over all the immense / depth of the limit / that they could leave us. / Only about that / that we present together, / look at each other, / when all things / existed… ». Words of historian Francisco Fuster Ruiz (Casa del Río, Socovos, 1941), settled in Murcia since the 1960s, when his family’s land was expropriated for the construction of the El Cenajo Reservoir. They take us back to the Franco era, when he was on military service in Madrid in 1965 and found a way to escape and express himself in poetry. His verses have become illustrations by his son Iván Fuster (Albacete, 1980) that together form ‘Vertical _ Sobre la esencia’, which can be visited at the Museo de Arte Ibérico El Cigarralejo de Mula, until March 5, from Tuesday to Friday (10 a.m. – 2 p.m.), Saturday and Sunday (11 a.m. – 2 p.m.).

The physiotherapist by profession and artist by profession Iván Fuster has lived in Murcia since he was 9 years old and has decided to pay tribute to his father, who suffers from dementia, illustrating his only collection of poems, ‘Vertical _ Sobre la esencia’ ( 1965), which he managed to publish with the money he earned playing poker in the army.

“He has other books, but they are history.” Francisco Fuster is a doctor of modern and contemporary history, he was a professor of library science and documentation at the University of Murcia, also director of the General Archives of the Navy ‘Don Alvaro de Bazán’, of Viso del Marqués, in Ciudad Real , and founder from the Institute of Albacete Studies and the journal AL-BASSIT.

The exhibition consists of 16 illustrations made with mixed techniques between collage, acrylic and embroidery. The material for the collage comes from recycling bins, old newspapers bought at flea markets and large advertising panels. “When you look at the road panels, the paper has a really cool plot, because it has very little resolution. They’re designed to be seen from afar, but up close they’re slightly different,” notes the artist.

“I wanted them to have a country flavor.” The artist believes that the poems are rural, therefore both the choice of materials and the embroidery technique introduced, the tree leaf and the depicted figures refer to the rustic environment, especially to the farmhouse ‘Casa de Cura’ where Francisco Fuster lived his childhood in Socovos, municipality of Albacete, and even the way of dressing in the sixties. The ‘Sisters in Dress’ illustration shows two women dressed in black long-sleeved shirts and long black skirts. “They refer a bit to farm life in the 1960s and 1970s,” emphasizes Iván.

In each illustration, the creator has reflected the sensations that his father’s verses convey to him, but he tries to capture the main concepts with which it relates. Because of the dementia he suffers from, “he can’t explain them, although he was moved at the inauguration and recited some poems, but I don’t know if he would remember that day now,” he notes wistfully.

Source: La Verdad

David

I am David Jackson, a highly experienced professional in the news industry. I have been working as an author at Today Times Live for over 10 years, and specialize in covering the entertainment section. My expertise lies in writing engaging stories that capture readers’ attention and deliver timely information about the latest developments.