The title “Notas sobre una pintura lijada, pintura imposible, pintura lisa” [Notes on Sanded-down Painting, Impossible Painting, Smooth Painting] provides insight into the text in which the artist Danilo Dueñas discusses the act of painting, the different levels of painting, a handful of certainties, and the unexpected encounters an artist experiences in painting. Dueñas addresses a number of questions, such as: What does painting need? How deep is a color? And, how can the gap between painting and drawing be bridged? He mentions “painting for the blind” that must be touched to be understood, and “painting that makes the viewer uncomfortable.” He ends his essay with a discussion on sanding the support in a “overlapping of times” as previous strokes reappear and it can be reclaimed; a possible form of painting that sands the surface color or draws in color.  

These notes on painting by the artist Danilo Dueñas (b. 1956) describe a kind of painting that eschews symbolism, narrative, and even the painter himself, whose virtuosity is viewed with skepticism when he outsources the task of making his works. Dueñas discusses a visual art concept that considers the surface and the identity of painting from a philosophical point of view. An artist creates his work according to the local architecture, in which he installs his painting. “I am interested in discovering the unknown,” Dueñas explains. In his work every space alludes to a new configuration and a new installation.  On the occasion of the exhibition A través del espejo [Through the Looking Glass] (Bogotá, March–May 1998), the selected artists were invited to study the museum space eight months in advance so that they each might create projects that “installed their painting.” The authors, mainly painters, had one thing in common: they structured their work conceptually according to the space as an “object of knowledge” that generated new dynamics and new contents. For more information on this type of curatorial practice (see “Autorreflexión de la pintura” [The Self-appraisal of Painting], doc. no. 1076656).   This document is related to [See: Jaramillo, Carmen María. “A través del espejo: autorreflexión de la pintura” [Through the Looking Glass: The Self-appraisal of Painting] by Carmen María Jaramillo, doc. no. 1133157; and “Reflexión de la pintura” [The Appraisal of Painting], doc. no. 1076692).Works by Danilo Dueñas have earned a number of distinctions. He was a finalist for the LuisCaballero Prize, Third Edition (Planetario Distrital, Bogotá, 2003); Johnnie Walker Prize for the Artes, Puntos de Cruce [Crossing Points] (Luis Ángel Arango Library, Bogotá, 1999); Beca Nacional de Creación [National Grant for Creation], (Colcultura, Bogotá); and First Prize at the VI Salón Regional [VI Regional Salon] (Corferias, Bogotá, 1993).