Rodolfo Abularach, “Cosmic Vision”

by David S. Rubin

Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Camden Annex, Beverly Hills, California

Continuing through August 9, 2025

Rodolfo Abularach, “Espacial Verde,” 1980, oil on canvas, 24 x 24”. All images courtesy of Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills.

The late Guatemalan artist Rodolfo Abularach (1933-2020) is widely recognized in Latin America, but he is not well known in the United States, where he lived and worked for forty years. In 1955, he left Guatemala to study at the Art Students League in New York City, where he maintained a studio until returning to his homeland in 1998. As revealed in “Aparición (Apparition)” (1962), he was familiar with the Abstract Expressionist style that dominated American art in the 1950s. The orange sphere at the composition’s center recalls Adolph Gottlieb’s “bursts”, while also emitting a hazy atmosphere of light that suggests the rectangular formations of Mark Rothko. Nevertheless, with the presence of a smaller orb in the distance, “Aparición” cannot be mistaken for an Abstract Expressionist painting, as the resemblance of the imagery to the sun and the moon in alignment is undeniable.

Rodolfo Abularach, “Túnel — Entrada (Tunnel — Entrance),” 1970, ink on paper, 30 x 30”.

It was actually in Los Angeles, while a resident printmaker at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in 1966, that Abularach introduced an image into his oeuvre that would preoccupy him for much of the remainder of his career: the human eye. The imagery seems to have morphed from his depictions of celestial orbs. The transition can be observed taking place in “Aparición – Nacimiento (Apparition – Birth)" (1964-67), which is also the exhibition’s showstopper. While still a depiction of a celestial body, the painting was completed a year after he produced the Tamarind lithographs. The drawing “Centro Negro” (1966) is a black-and-white composition in which rings of concentric circles suggest a pupil, cornea, iris, and sclera. In the drawing and painting, hatched lines create rays of energy that emanate outward towards us from the centermost circle, causing the imagery to pulsate, suggesting a supernatural presence. Within this context, the imagery may be associated with the Mayan and Buddhist mandalas with which Abularach, who was of Mesoamerican heritage and practiced Tantric Buddhism, was familiar. Additionally, the mandala in the painting is ascribed magical powers, having given birth to another spherical astral object.

Rodolfo Abularach, “Centro Rosado - Ojo (Pink Center — Eye),” 1968, ink and acrylic on paper, 33 1/4 x 33 1/4”.

In “Centro Rosado — Ojo (Pink Center — Eye)” (1968), the transformation from celestial orb to ocular vessel is complete. Here, Abularach combined elements of both the solar system and the anatomy of vision. While the parts of the eye are clearly delineated, a pink disk with a ring of light around it reflected in the pupil beautifully encapsulates the idea of a direct connection between visual perception and limitless spirit. Additionally, a speck of light shown moving towards the pupil suggests something otherworldly. Put simply, the work refers to the visionary who possesses a metaphysical consciousness.

Art historical precedents for this approach to portraying the seer include Odilon Redon’s “Eye-Balloon” (1878), where an omniscient “third eye” is depicted as an apparition in the form of a hot air balloon, and Jay DeFeo’s “The Eyes” (1958), where the artist’s own eyes look into cosmic space, represented by vertical and diagonal linear striations.

Rodolfo Abularach, “Aparición — Nacimiento (Apparition — Birth),” 1964-67, oil on canvas, 50 x 50”.

From the late 1960s onward, Abularach embraced the eye as a primary image. He moved back and forth between transforming eye imagery into abstract structures that suggest mandalas and celestial orbs and more representational renderings that include details such as lids, lashes, and brows. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he experimented with a variety of figurative eye compositions, such as “Floating Eye” (1968), a grayscale work in which the eyelid of a partially closed eye resembles a lampshade suspended in an amorphous atmosphere. “Selena No. 2” (1970) repeats the concept developed in “Pink Center-Eye,” but with more attention given to details such as eyelashes.

Rodolfo Abularach, “Floating Eye,” 1968, ink on paper, 22 1/2 x 28 1/2”.

Aside from his concerns with spiritual content, the more abstract compositions reveal Abularach also to have been interested in formal considerations, as the circular shape of the pupil lends itself to explorations in concavity and convexity. In “Túnel — Entrada (Tunnel — Entrance)” (1970), the colors of the usually black pupil and white iris are reversed, as they might appear in an X-ray, and the lower lid is truncated to create the illusion that we are looking into an open orifice. By contrast, a streak of light painted on the ocular shape in “Espacial Verde (1980) turns the image into a mysterious sculptural object protruding into the gallery space. Ultimately, Abularach found pleasure in making art that could stimulate both meditative and aesthetic modes of contemplation.

David S. Rubin is a Los Angeles-based curator, writer, and artist. As a curator, he has held positions at MOCA Cleveland, Phoenix Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, and San Antonio Museum of Art. As a writer he has contributed to Art and Cake, Art in America, Arts Magazine, Artweek, ArtScene, Fabrik, Glasstire, Hyperallergic, and Visual Art Source. He has published numerous exhibition catalogs, and his curatorial archives are housed in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

For more information: www.davidsrubin.com.