Eusebio Sempere
Móvil, approximately 1972–1973
(Mobile)
Stainless steel, 180 x 60 x 50 cm
Eusebio Sempere (Onil, Spain, 1923–1985) was an artist who is referenced in the debates on abstraction – geometric, cold, lyrical, kinetic, normative art, concrete art, etc. – that permeate the history of 20th-century art history in Spain and elsewhere, due to his work, his long career and his aesthetic and plastic definition. In a life story marked by a long stay in Paris (1948–1959) and his journey to the United States in 1964, Sempere did not neglect his affective and artistic relationships with Spain. This is evident, on the one hand, in the regularity of his exhibitions and participation in the most prestigious international events at the time, such as the first and second Hispano-American Art Biennial (1951 and 1953, respectively) the 1960 Venice Biennale competition and the 1961 Biennial competition of São Paulo. It is also seen in his collaboration with groups and artists that, in Valencia, Madrid, Córdoba and Paris (Equipo 57, Grupo Parpalló) sought a plastic, cultural and social alternative to the predominant Informalism in Spain in the early 1960s.
In the 1960s, the artist himself synthesised his position and artistic interest as the formulation of "an experimental aesthetic language […] that would eliminate the divergence of art and technique". Adding to this premise is the singular kinetic project with which he wished to develop his concept of interaction of planes, which organically articulates the evolution of his work. Hence, in the late 1940s, he reduced his pictorial vocabulary to the use of simple geometric forms (triangle, square, circumference) which, through their arrangement and distribution in the medium, generate the sensation and perception of movement and dynamism. His contact with the gallerist Denise René and the artists Victor Vasarely and Auguste Herbin, among others, along with his participation in the 1950 Salon des Réalités Nouvelles exhibition put him in an arena of maximum plastic experimentation, which reached one of its peaks with the publication of "Manifiesto de la luz", along with the artist Loló Soldevilla in 1955. He quickly defined a language characterised by straight lines with gouache and bright colours that he would use years later in his cardboard collages, which largely involved spacial and visual decomposition of geometric figures or landscapes. His following works chiefly consist of his luminous reliefs, which were shown in Venice and at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York in 1960 and took him into "a mechanised, motorised and electrified art", in the words of Aguilera Cerni. In this context, Sempere remained within the category of rational geometric abstraction while excluding himself from the orthodox kinetic movement. His definitive international recognition took place after his participation in the exhibition The Responsive Eye (MoMA, 1965).
In Madrid, he took part in other initiatives and became involved with new forms of artistic creation and their societal implications. Of note is the support provided him by the gallerist Juana Mordó, his relationship with the gathering of artists in Cuenca in relation to Fernando Zóbel and his proximity to young poets and concrete visual artists, in addition to Exposición - rotor internacional de concordancia de artes (Exhibition - International Rotor of Correspondence of the Arts, 1967). His desire to integrate science and technique in artistic practice largely explain his participation in the itinerant exhibition organised by Vicente Aguilera Cerni Antes del Arte. Experiencias ópticas perceptivas estructurales (Before Art. Structural and Perceptive Optical Experiences, 1968). Similarly, of particular importance to the development of his theories on Gestalt-based perception was his participation in the conferences "Generación Automática de Formas Plásticas" (Automatic Generation of Plastic Forms) at the Calculus Centre of the University of Madrid, during which he prepared his project for the headquarters of IBM (1969–1971).
In that context, between his fascination with computing and the frustration it caused him due to its possibilities of artistic creation, Sempere conceived his mobiles of iron and stainless steel rods. His work Móvil (Mobile) was created to harness its dynamic nature (hung from the ceiling) and its visual development in space, in the fashion of the last stage of the system of structures on which he had constructed his paintings and gouaches. In order to achieve the visual continuity of the piece in movement, Sempere interrupted the linear and spacial continuity of the perimeter of the four figures it contains. His intention was "to investigate to the greatest possible extent the multiple optical contrasts that may arise from playing with different planes and thicknesses of metal, which can be used to create a kind of dynamic, movable and luminous sculpture", therefore requiring the participation of the viewer to achieve the variation of the form and its luminous scintillation.

References
Eusebio Sempere. Una antología. 1953–1981, IVAM Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Valencia, 1998.
Eusebio Sempere, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2018.
Canelobre: Revista del Instituto Alicantino de Cultura "Juan Gil-Albert", no. 69, 2018. Dedicated to Atlas Sempere.
R. Robles Tardío