Page 7 - Watercolor

sTOCkhOLM ARChiTECTuRE
1985 dRAWing And WATERCOLOR CM. 30 X 70 / in. 12 X 27½

Ligia’s vision is more “emotional” than emotioned. It is so dynamic that, at a certain

point, it escapes the control of reason. Nevertheless, it is a vision capable of enraptur-
ing the human soul, projecting it toward other dimensions, extreme and vertiginous:
dimensions that we realize belong to our own most profound sentiments.
Hence in her paintings, human feeling does not confer meaning to the environment,
nature or reality. Neither do metaphors appear that speak of reaching the threshold of

the infinite, the transcendent, the “beyond”, a passing from one situation to another,
from darkness to light. Anything but.

It is the environment, rather the nature, and reality that arouse a vibrantly, passion-
ate reaction in the human soul. And it is this particular reality - a reality which is not
conceived as a reflection of something ineffable - that becomes the environment of life,
be it hostile or cordial, in which intermingles a constant active relation, similar to that
which connects the human being to society.

At this point, in Ligia Podorean-Ekström’s paintings, it is almost undeniable not to
notice the underlining of a sort of new-romantic approach that assumes “range and

diversification” as a fundamental aesthetic principle. Nevertheless, the interest that her
paintings arouse consists of communicating not only the way in which it carries out
the experience, but also the way in which it approaches reality. Whatever she depicts
becomes a source of feeling inducing one to think at the same time as well.

In other words, the artist “sees”, but is perfectly conscious that what she sees is just a
fragment of reality which invites her to reflect and go beyond such fragment. In fact,
no matter how infinite the extension of time and space is, her thought overcomes what

is “seen” and what is “visible”, joining the domains of dream, memory, imagination,
fantasy and intuition.
Andrea Pagnes | Art Critic

WATERCOLOR LIGIA PODOREAN-EKSTRÖM 7