Francisco Javier Vazquez Estupinan
Jazzamoart

Interdisciplinary visual artist who has worked since the 1970s permanently in the theory and practice of synesthesia between music and painting. The work by Jazzamoart, which is full of joy, Mexicanisms, doodles and strength, and is containing with a powerful personality and gestural language, has been appreciated and recognized in Mexico, Canada, United States, South America, Europe and Asia.

Considered by Raquel Tibol as a neoromantic and by Carlos Blas Galindo as a pioneer of expressiveness, Jazzamoart's work has been featured in and and received distinctions in museums and spaces such as the Ibero-American Biennial of Miami, the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, Tamayo Biennial, Tour de la Bourse in Montreal, Osaka Triennial in Japan, Prize Joan Miró Drawing International in Barcelona, Historic Center Festival Prize in CDMX, Prize for the Bicentennial of the French Revolution, Bronx Museum of Art in New York, Beijing Biennale at the National Museum of Art of China, Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, National Halls of Painting and Sculpture in Mexico, Phoenix Museum of Art in Arizona, Europalia in Belgium, Palacio Bellas Artes Museum and Museum of Modern Art in Mexico, Hyogo Prefectural Museum in Japan, Kereva Museum in Finland, MARCO Museum in Monterrey, Museo Do Brinqueido in Portugal, Museum of Latin American Art in California and Scholarships from the National System of Creators, among many others.

Jazzamoart has generated a cultural legacy and a vast body of work in various disciplines such as sculpture in wood, marble, bronze and ceramics, also in drawings, inks and graphics, constantly exploring object art and installation, but the main conceptual discourse and aesthetic of the Guanajuato creator is through painting, oil and especially in large format paintings, going deeper and deeper into the creation of visual noises, in the human possibility of perceiving through the gaze, the emotions created by music, trap sounds in the fabric, freeze sound sensations. “Saxophonist Joshua
Redman wrote, "The magic of the jazz experience is in the impossibility of being replaced. Every sound is valuable because it will never again be played, or heard, in exactly the same way, in the same place, not with the same emotion." Jazzamoart could say the same of his own life and art.”

The obligatory review of Art History and the context of contemporary art invited Jazzamoart led Jazzamoart to make painting itself the protagonist of his work, painting as a means of expression, universal painting, beyond the themes addressed—painting as a means of expression, universal painting, painting of all times. For this reason, the constant variations on Rembrandt, Goya and Velázquez are a reminder, an update and revitalization of ancient painting, linking it to an iconic musical genre of our time. “From there, from the space where resides forever the genius converted into the energy of the universe, Rembrandt looks out to smile joyfully, pleased – we seem to see it – at his colleague Jazzamoart”

The significance of Jazzamoart's art goes beyond the field of visual arts, interdisciplinary actions through scenography, performance and visual improvisations with national jazz players of the stature of Chilo Morán, Juan José Calatayud, Eugenio Toussaint, Olivia Revueltas, Héctor Infanzón, Iraida Noriega, Lila Downs and internationals like Ray Charles, B.B. King, Diana Krall, Arturo Sandoval, Branford Marsallis and Wayne Shorter have provided a vital, unifying and enriching element in the jazz scene and development.

Jazzamoart has presented his work around the world in more than five hundred exhibitions collective and individual, but just as important as the artistic contribution is the imprint humane and close collaboration, teaching and dialogue with all people involved in creative processes and work teams in workshops, museums, galleries or alternative spaces, with young creators, with the underground art movement, with fellow musicians and painters... in short, a path of more than 45 years of authenticity, struggle and commitment to art, to society and to Mexico. “The birthplace of Diego Rivera was also
that of José Chávez Morado. Likewise, that of Jazzamoart. Three painters, three generations, different historical and political moments... Rivera and Chávez Morado were attentive to the landscape and numerous motifs of popular Mexico, Jazzamoart, as the third “great” of the
painters of the Bajío is also, but to the social landscape that is discovered and emerges from a central motif of Mexico that also continues to be popular: music.”

Title of Work: Chichimeca Saxophones and Masks

Description of work: Starting from the iconic and millenary universality of the Olmec Head as a support and common thread of this great collective project, the visual artist Javier Vázquez Estupiñan, better known as Jazzamoart, carries his gestures and expressionistic language to festive, musical and colorful paths, to leave testimony of the cultural richness of his native Guanajuato. In the multicolored rivers, the brushstrokes intersperse saxophones and Chichimeca masks; Sounding saxophones to the greats of jazz musicians of the 20th century like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, but who they also evoke the nostalgia of José Alfredo Jiménez and Jorge Negrete, jazz and mariachi, representative genres of Mexico and the United States of America. They serve as a motive for integrating nations, cultures, and traditions. They appear in the Some very popular characters of the Guanajuato betrayal such as cardboard dolls and Judas, objects widely represented by other illustrious of the Bajío, the great Diego Rivera. The most Chichimeca masks pay homage to the original inhabitants of the region where the State of Guanajuato is located, an allusion to emphasize the dialogue between two pre-Hispanic cultures, the Olmec in the support and the chichimeca in the stroke. All these elements have been recreated by Jazzamoart, to generate an allegorical and contemporary image of his Guanajuato origins and its contemporary and rhythmic imprint.