Insiders' Art Profiles: In Conversation With Bill Fares

By Pascual Hijuelos

Bill Fares, a longtime resident of San Miguel, is an abstract artist with a strong affinity for tradition. However, his approach to creating art is anything but conventional. His latest exhibition at Yam Gallery featured captivating images crafted on glass through his interpretation of the Sgraffito technique, which involves scratching the surface to reveal contrasting layers of color beneath. This decorative practice has its origins in Egyptian and Roman periods and adds a rich historical depth to Fares' contemporary creations. Each piece is unique and harbors a mystery which is either seductive or explosive, adding to the complexity of these elusive images.

Why abstraction as opposed to representational?

We think abstractly. It’s a language. Our thoughts are at least one step removed from our perceived reality, rather they be words or images perceived, they are abstracted and absorbed into our consciousness. Representational imagery is too limiting.

When you graduated SFAI and moved to NYC, what were your early days in Soho like?

When I first moved to the city, I became aware of my naivete regarding my work and my place in the city. I learned quickly that all the ism’s the art critics were pushing were just means to further their careers. The artists themselves were mostly interested in extending the dialog established by the founders of the New York School, otherwise known as the abstract expressionism. What I learned was that everything I was doing had already been done. I moved to NYC at a time when experimentation with new and different materials in order to push the tradition of art’s limits was the paradigm; an idea and a way of working I became a part of and known for.

What artists influenced you there?

I searched out and met Dorothea Rocburne after seeing her exhibition at Bykert Gallery. She introduced me to the art world of the time. I met Robert Smithson, Richard Serra, Brice Marden and so many more. It was a small and tight art community back then. Rockburne opened up the door to the necessity of seeing beyond the known and given, regarding anything, and everything! Richard Tuttle taught me the importance of moving on, “because art’s essence lays in the discovery of what’s possible, and exploring the limits within the exploration.” He cautioned about the refining, finishing and refinishing that turns the art into a commodity.

Describe your work.

I’m trying to understand and clarify the very essence of what constitutes one aspect of art. Evolution is the constant that I draw on. I use simple shapes, usually geometric, to break down and generate complex configurations. One piece begets the next. If the continuity is broken because of outside forces or because of an aspect within the evolution, then things become problematic and change, but from the very beginning of my artistic endeavor, I’ve deconstructed aspects of the materials being used. I’ve blocked out, covered up, de-solved, folded over, cut holes into and most recently, I’m scraping and etching into painted glass in order to extend the possibilities within the tradition of painting. I consider myself a traditionalist in that I’m trying to maintain painting’s vitality by stretching its limits without refining it to its death. I’m not interested in refining anything.

How has your work changed over the years?

For philosophical reasons based on psychological and spiritual needs, I have continuously been fusing the figure to its source, the ground. The geometry is used as a passive entity to maintain the ground’s surface tension. Negative forms emerge, reaffirming the presence and importance of the ground. Whether its etching into painted glass, cutting holes in canvas or steel, or peeling a painted surface back on itself, they’re all useful means I’ve used for over 50 years to link and fuse a figure to the ground. No matter what the process, they are all felt experiences derived from scattered thoughts of how to link and fuse the outward limits of simple forms, or figures, to their source, the ground. But to answer your question Pascual, despite appearances, nothing has changed.

Fares’ works appear in public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Neuberger Museum and the Muhlenberg Center for the Arts and Museo de Arte Abstracto, Manuel Felguérez in Zacatecas to name a few. For more information, contact Yam Gallery.

Cuban-American Pascual Hijuelos divides his time between San Miguel de Allende, his home for over twenty years, and New York City. pascualhijuelos.art