I have always thought about the strong influence and consequent contaminating effect that different artistic media exert on each other through a process of mutual dialogue. This is especially true when considering the seductive impact of the world of graphic art on the process and corresponding results of painting.

Indeed, all of the visual elements that pure painting might, in principle, have, we could say are potentiated to the extreme in the tactile dimension by the calm and seductive effect of the mixed media. Thus, the gaze is haptically entangled and takes pleasure, so often, in the intricacies and features of the work, as if our perception were inquisitively discovering the deep secrets of an extreme and decided corporality, always emerging from its own foundations, in its multiple layers and even in the fertile medium of the paper.

In this context, the most characteristic element in the work of Enriqueta Hueso (Benimámet/Valencia, 1948) is, in my opinion, her extensive and varied use of mixed media. Her approach could be considered, in its consistently solid and marked corporality, as a profoundly mysterious overlap between the strong incisive calling of the print and the underlying temptation of the painting-marked by the increasingly unstoppable "principle of collage". Integrated within this, as a challenge and a seductive journey, are elements of her own experience.

Not even the intermittent sideways journeys into her occasional watercolours escape this "image overdose", to the extent that they consistently forget the demanding challenge of white and space to decidedly favour the utmost figurative density in most of her proposals.

In this way, the pictorial works of Enriqueta Hueso become like permanent tactile maps; they turn into narrative journeys achieved through the use of multiple referential elements which are added, simply and with an absolute spontaneity, to the core of the painting. You could say that in the same way that the titles of the paintings imply an agreed dialogue between the image and the text, predominantly with a descriptive and interpretative aim, resorting to the use of "collage" or varied pictorial weight in mixed media has become a definitive strategy for most of her compositions.

However, it is not about simply differentiating between the figurative possibilities and/or abstract elements of her paintings, since Enriqueta Hueso feels motivated to intervene in both operative aspects. She even does it with a spontaneous naïveté, moving with ease across the boundary between representation and presentation, image and object, figurative fiction and reality. Such is the case, for instance, in the recent series dedicated to music, bull fighting, or the visceral worship of lands as expressive rudiments of the tectonic potential of her painting.

Clearly, sometimes even the title of the work, as an essential visiting card, reinforces the perceptive attitude of viewing in order to discover that immediate presence of the materials and elements that are so varied in the work of Enriqueta Hueso. The following are some good examples: "Galicia. Algas y conchas" ("Galicia. Seaweed and Shells"); "Serie juegos. Dominó" ("Games series. Dominoes"); "Cáñamo sobre madera"("Hemp over wood"); "Serie tierras. Corteza de árbol" (Lands series. Tree Bark); "Serie juegos. Canicas"("Games series. Marbles"); "Serie música: sonata fácil", (Music series: easy sonata"); "Pentagrama de nácar", ("stave of mother of pearl") etc. From a semantic point of view, the nominal ostension referring to the different materials and objects and brought about by the title ("dominoes, hemp, mother of pearl, shells, seaweed, tree bark, music score, marbles") introduces a strong redundancy in the veracity of its existence in the material of the work, as if it were an explicit warning and a conscious reinforcement of the action of recognition which is characteristic of our viewing. Recognize in order to be surprised by the results of the composition.

It is precisely in relation to the image composition, aside from its own material influences and the concealed weight and textures, that Enriqueta Hueso prefers, perhaps unconsciously, to frequently resort to the use of the foreground of the objects and constructive references. Even when she resorts to work using an overall perspective-as in the example of the "bullring", portrayed from a bird's-eye view and schematically converted into simple circles-she turns them into so many more foregrounds of the exact geometric adopted shape. It is only later, that our perception in a slow reading motion, appropriately informed by the title itself, readjusts the lens in order to correctly identify the image, and in this way, with a sudden conceptual zoom, moves from a close-up view of the image to the distanced overall view of the representation.

Between the camera and the brush is precisely where Enriqueta Hueso draws together her artistic tasks, both in cinematography and in her assiduous painting. Maybe it is from there that she gets her interest for the cyclical return to the unsettling and effective presence of reality, either by descriptive references or through the use of "collage" and the corresponding pictorial weight. Between the printing press and the camera, her painting stirs restlessly, possibly withdrawing into itself, as a drastic and risky self-defence from her own specific dreams.

Between those multiple and contaminating spaces and adventures where the seeking and aesthetic experiences take refuge, Enriqueta Hueso, day by day, outlines and designs her visual projects where her ideas can take shelter, live and reformulate themselves. That is her personal and restricted world, which on the other hand is not peaceful but, I would say, rather more urgent and restless.

Román de la Calle
Institute of Educational Creativity and Innovations.
University of Valencia