“Un exquisito ‘déjà vu’”is an article written by the critic and historian José Hernán Aguilar. It is a review of an exhibition of paintings by Carlos Salas. The article begins by describing what the author sees as a paradoxical problem concerning the excessive amount of art being produced at that time (in the 1980s). Having drawn attention to the problem, Aguilar explains that he defines a good artist as one who works “a formal idea or an innovation” into his painting. Aguilar delves a little deeper into this subject by suggesting that “a good artist’s” work must not only be in step with its time, but must also have “challenged the artist in terms of its physical production.” Later in his article, Aguilar discusses this artist’s technique, explaining how Salas creates his paintings and describing how he overlaps canvases and applies his color. He also thinks the titles of the paintings are appealing, and compares Salas’ style to the work of other artists. Aguilar thinks that “there is more to this type of painting than meets the eye.”  

This article documents how the art critic José Hernán Aguilar (b. 1952) acted as a cultural filter during the 1980s. Faced with a flood of art (paintings in particular), it became necessary to single out the work of certain artists that in those days was produced to satisfy the market during the drug trafficking period in Colombia and the resulting demand for money laundering solutions. It was precisely during this period and into the 1990s that the work of the painter Carlos Salas (b. 1957) stood out for its impressively disciplined power. Aguilar therefore sets Salas’ work apart from the above-mentioned flood of convenient, opportunistic art.

Aguilar also provides a detailed review of the works in the exhibition, discussing Salas’ paintings in terms of their conceptual approach and comparing them to the concept of “deconstruction” suggested by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930–2004). Though Aguilar does not explore the concept in great detail, referring to it almost literally, he alludes to Salas’ constant focus on research. He also compares Salas’ painting El origen de la apariencia to the Impressionist Nymphéas or Water Lilies subjects by Claude Monet (1840–1936). Aguilar underscores the precision and skill with which the Colombian painter applies his color, highlighting his capacity for self-criticism as revealed in his compositions that include canvasses overlaid over other canvases as though they were a series of revisions in his “deconstructive” process. According to Aguilar, this constant reflection in Salas’ work contradicts any suggestion that he uses abstraction simply as a formula lacking any depth.    

José Hernán Aguilar stands out as one of the few art critics who took a long, close look at the resurgence of painting in the 1980s through the prism of Postmodernist theories. One of the theoreticians who most decisively influenced his thinking was Derrida, most particularly in terms of his concept of “deconstruction.” Aguilar’s articles are noted for their focus on the problems of articulation and their descriptions of the concept of assembling ideas via a pictorial language, perhaps because of the marked influence of “audiovisual works” in his critical discourse on contemporary visual arts.