2023
marble
150 x 34 x 30 cm
Pablo Achugarry’s work engages with the heritage and heroic traditions of classical and Renaissance marble carving, tapping this timeless seam to create works that pay homage to beauty, harmony and the equally enduring human yearning for transcendence.
His sculptures are physical evocations of spiritual longing and achieve their effect through a dedication to craft and technical virtuosity that, in the right hands, can transform the hardest block of marble into a vessel of movement and light.
At the essence of carving lies a sense of an inherent form contained within a block of stone, waiting to be discovered. This is the drive that Achugarry follows, interrogating the marble in a probing dialogue through which he divines its inner being. In this way, carving is a very physical kind of communication between the human body and the geological body of the earth.
Whilst two of his great heroes, the Ancient Greek sculptor Phidias and Michelangelo nearly two thousand years later, manifested the spiritual through depictions of deities and other figures, Achugarry translates this energy of spirit into abstract forms reaching upwards. The translucency of marble is both luminous and diaphanous, having the qualities and flow of fabric and water. In his hands, it creates a body of sculpture that for all its solidity appears to defy gravity and touch a higher consciousness.
Pablo Atchugarry (b. 1954) is a globally renowned artist best known for his monumental works. Atchugarry’s sculptures blend elements of abstraction and spirituality, characterised by their precise craftsmanship, remarkable lightness, and poetic style. Despite their monumental scale, his forms exude a sense of delicacy and movement, with undulating folds and planes that merge into carefully composed structures. He frequently works with Carrara white marble, black marble, pink and grey stone, as well as bronze with patina finishes and ceramics. His works have been exhibited at prestigious institutions including the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, the Pérez Art Museum in Miami, and the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, USA. His monumental marble sculptures are displayed in public spaces across South America and Europe.
