Tomas Paredes
Snatch of the preface to the catalog
Andres Alcantara Antonio Prates Gallery 2001
…
In the same way, thinker’s heads of custodians and guardians, stars and angels, asteroids where the stone turns into emotions without ever losing its strength. The orador real – sculptures with a clear connection to structures and intentions-is, not an intentional art but schemes and geometrical shapes that claim accuracy, purity, and the violin’s subtleness.
Direct carving, with no use of hundreds of previous sketches, with no other help than the boundaries of thoughts; direct carving, live, pieces fitted in the most valued translation of contemporaneity, progress, design, execution, results, disdain for vacuity, the nothing, rootless art.
Only very few sculptors, experts of light, work the stone with the same technical refinement and grandeur as Alcantara, a far from trends sculptor, dedicated to the roots of contemporaneity and, at the same time, the most natural, inspired, and deep-rooted artist nowadays. He is an ascetic sheltered in his «atelier,» at his home, with you, with Ceselli, with the virtually riverine convoy of Madariaga, with the piano with no strings attached or the broken violin of Hölderlin and Fijman. Like other artists, these last carve with Dante’s voice made pieces of solid light, vibrant lucidity, and reputable tempo.
(Adapted by JMS)