The artist-traveller is not new within the world cultural panorama. It was one of the characteristic archetypes of the Romantic Era and remained like that from the second half of the XIX century and all through the XX century. Travelling has been for this professionals of the imagination, a chance for diversification for their inspiration, find in others, the substances of fantasy and atmosphere to be able to bring them to its own personal design, extend a kind of parody of the explorer-conqueror that enhances the opportunities to expand its self esteem.

Countless are the examples of artists from powerful nations or mainly Europeans that have work for expanses of time in the depressed landscapes of Asia, Africa, Latin America or the Caribean, assuming the visions, resemblance, myths and poetic intimations from those areas, transforming them in part of their own styles, codes and aesthetic interests.

The painter-traveller (why not call him so?) Eurico Borges, arrived at Cuban shores, eager to imbibe all the mystery and syncretism of the human magma of our legendary insular geography. First he went into the most popular, or better said marginal of our aspects. Diving into the folkloric space of the capital, he palates its tastes, feels its effects, knows from the inside their ways and means. From that perspective, gives birth to an exuberant and hideous series of images-tales, almost caricatures, which are imbibed with certain drama, situations and sudden changes on the normal course of Cuban life. He then, decided to focus on the “asere” (townships) using them as base for the works, where the “joke” became a petrified plastic irony, sketched in contrasting and aggressive colours.
But Eurico did not stop there. After that first meeting, of that rude introduction on his Habana Adventure, started to feel the consequence of the satiety, to have swallowed too fast the contents. Suddenly it appeared, after a trip to Spain, the wish to pass over what had been attained. The direct chronicle , the semi-humours customs, gave way –in a second tempo- to a more remote and synthetic pictorial representations where the man and its circumstances –Ortega’s ideas- became part of state of greater spirituality and poetry.

A turn back to his origins (Spain and Portugal) and the answer of the buyers before the attainments of the Cuban theme, that he exhibited there, seems that became part of the end to an exotic way of doing, folk, farce and of narrative condition; and the opening to this new way of expression that he shows today.

Manuel López Oliva - November 2000.
Painter and Art Critic.

There is Sea and Sea, There is a go and There is a Return

Doubtless there was a beginning to this stage: the works with angels theme: (angel of grace, of contingency and of love) born from his happy and joyful link to his actual love, Isabel. Here, the findings in form and technic of the first series enter into the kingdom of melody. Blues and yellows, sky and sun, became part of his way of doing, as a prevailing harmony of painting sounds that involves in a single dream his vital feelings and passions, his past and present, the consistency and the new Eurico.

Now, he brings another proposal. It seem that Eurico said: “Eureka”. A canvass, a mini-series of what the calls “falso grabado” and an allegorical embryo, are part of an exhibition that wants to become the universal reflection not only of the artist-traveller but of the man with roots that searches in a distant world, in other geography, in the distance of a dreamed journey, a full reality. Is a universal entity: he who searches the changes in the distance and tries to foot them. But in the “eurikean” proposal he bring us there a certitude of a go, come, go again (a title from the cuban Loló Soldevilla) that never sets apart the man-traveller from his origins, from the fountain that is his nourishment, from the country that designs him. From there the unequal hybridous works shown at this exhibition bring us a reflection that assumes what of experience is imbibed in this form of artistic expression between figurative and naive.

The artist-traveller as ascertain himself with parts of the population that pretend to become travellers themselves. But the acknowledgment of the painter with them surmise a contrast. Eurico needs the turn back, the attachment to the motherland, the ability to open to all kind of worlds without loosing the fertile relationship to its own world. The colour design on the canvass, the soft touch that brings the whites to the darken shaded areas in the paper, the attrezzo where men become attached to the orb for a sort of umbilical cord that ties them and offer the viewer an earthly interpretation of a traveller of life and art.

Is not the viewer, in this case, who goes into the paint, is the work of Eurico Borges the one the one that gets into the observer, crashing with soft harmony at the beginning, almost secretly, to grow later, clear and strenuous, hitting into the watcher like a knife, like a blow, with a gaze that, from the canvass, astonish, discloses, infuse identity. For all those that look without seeing, that speak without looking to the eye... The eye that watches creates a new dimension where we feel questioned. A single eye ¡......¡ ¿is anything else needed? Our life is confined to a single stage. We see what is shown y we are what the rest see in us. What space is left to oneself? We are squint-eyed –with or without our knowledge- Blinds like the eye of the Cyclops for the interior examination, of the essence, of the perspective that, sometimes we lack.

The brutality of a mutilated image, becomes softened with the clever use of colour and light turning to the character all the beauty with which was depict.

The female squint-eyed angels of Eurico seduce for the beauty of their encased features, in their exact shapes of clever drawing, innocent and suspicious, always sensuous.... absolutely erotic.

A heavenly dimension is mixed with the flesh from a very human point of view ¿have they lost that eye while traversing the earth, or have they donate it to us, tired of looking after us?

An amazing work that becomes greater in the memory of those who have seen it. It grows, gets hold of the viewer, leaving a seal of heaven and humanity in close relationship, so near....so far, a dot where both dimensions intermingle...legions of human angels descend on me.

A quarrelsome, as any contemporary artist that keeps developing, turns back to the figurative in his latest works, approaching to a design almost academical, but deliberately changing the traditional approach, making use of the liberty granted to the artist and certain amount of irony, slices the sketch, giving the viewer a dual vision: on one side creates artificial paradises offering new questions, attaches to the expression of the faces (find intimate glances, killer ones and others that gives you a reasons to die for...) on the other hand, his pictorial abilities in the use of colours –daring, clear, shinny, incredible becomes a clear declaration of liberty and originality. Art is Free as the mind of the one that opens a new seam of inspiration.

The artist arrives to its own self between colours and brushes. Various influences can be found: from the “Fauves” for its colouring- to “Marat” of David, more neo-classic in the construction of forms.-(regard “The angel’s dignity”, canvass of neo-classic nature) crossing through Cezánne Cubism, the sweetness of Matisse, the dreamed surrealism: -sleeping angels, naked, with wigs far from the body and forgoten, as the figure to the sleep..... humanized angels- or the expressionism: crouched figures and the affectionate faces. All polished, reborn and reinvented by Borges.

“God, very much worried with terrorism” leave angels to take charge of our worldly matters, and there are angels that profit and get into the car of “Trip with destiny” to become a little mischievous, human with a dark sensuality, to show that angels have sex...

TAREIXA GRANDE TABOADA.
Specialist in Contemporary Art. Ourense, 11/10/03.
"I stayed at Paradise". EURICO BORGES. Exhibition at Galería Visol. Ourense.

Here we have a Portuguese painter, that after several and important exhibitions in his native country, France, Spain and after being granted the Medal to the Artistic Merit of the Ministry of Information and Tourism, was selected as participant in the XXII Autumn Hall at Valencia, arrives now with a load of paints and illusion, to exhibit his artistic work, a work basically daring in its contents, assaulting in the colouring and altered in the lines and forms. Certainly, we are facing an exceptional master that at first sight is a daring one, but looking inside, its work is not, as they are framed within the avant-garde lines that he keeps to the foremost extremes with the greatest formality and sincere affection.

MANUEL MARTIN SANTIAGO – SALAMANCA, 1977

A obra do português merece ser vista, seduz o espirito. Elementos desde, objectivos, realistas até ao, "naiv" correspondem-se nas superficies geométricas-abstractas, distinguem-se caricías estilistas com o cubismo e a Op-Art.

As linhas vigorosamente traçadas poderão à primeira vista parecer frias ou estéreis, o luminoso colorido dá-nos a impressão de estética gelada. No entanto confundem-se formas e colorido uma unidade fresca e dinâmica, torna-se o conteúdo exacto e original, reconhece-se ironia.

T. K. - OSNABRÜCK, 1982

Simple, ingenuous, sincere, joyful. Yes, like a show. Seems that the painter is an stage decorator, a master of perspective, a designer rubbing out anecdotes , forgetting purposely details that the viewer will have to bring forward himself, a way of communication between the spectator and the paint. Yes, we are before “show-paints” and of course we have not only see but to feel the paintings of Eurico.

He already exhibited his work in 1975 at our Museum. Now returns with an artistic load that astonish for its precision, his aesthetic anticipation and for a youthful spirit that intends to give us his personal realistic vision of life. But the dominant factors are beauty, joyfulness and simplicity.
A very interesting exhibition that charms for its strong expressive force and in the middle of our daily routine leave our spirit filled with light and peace.

SEGUNDO ALVARADO - ORENSE, 1991

0 caminho até Flehe (Düsseldorf), compensa para ver a exposição, do pintor português Eurico Borges.

Os quadros com rnuito colorido, são ao mesmo tempo Pop e "naiv" com duplo sentido crítico que ressalta através de claros limpos nas formas geométricas que se assemelham a "puzzles" dum doce cromático.

ANGELIKA HANN - DÜSSELDORF, 1983

It’s a new, different, daring painting. With human figure as a theme, but a fantastic, incredible image wrapped in ochre, orange and reds as a warm and sunny homage.

MARIBEL – VALLADOLID, 1977

One can see that Borges has travel abroad, from there his eyes and vivid imagination has brought back a load of worlds of light and sun, spectral visions and truly imbibe the arduous art of composition, that he determines in a very personal style.

Vanguard painting, painting to be seen and carefully observed, with youthful spirit, without trying to find inconsistent explanations to a paint that is in its pureness so fresh, transparent and naive. Borges is not a painter of minorities, his work is part of a fabulous world of command, for the comprehension of anybody with sensibility and artistic maturity.

MANUEL MARTIN SANTIAGO - SALAMANCA, 1977

El buen viajero no limita sus pasos a recorrer caminos, no se conforma com ojos que miren sin ver, ni entiende palabras lanzadas vacías al viento. El buen viajero es aquel que va arrancando en cada camino huellas ocultas, aquele cuyos ojos son capaces de redescubrir almas en lo más recóndito de las piedras, y aquel que utiliza las palabras para absorber las esencias del mundo que intenta atrapar. El buen artista es aquel que consigue, con un secreto conjuro, arrastrar hacia el abismo de sus mundos, aquellos que logró encontrar como buen viajero que es. Es cierto que las maletas de Eurico Borges no encuentran tranquilidad, ni reposo, ni tampoco, intuimos, lo hade su alma o como quiera que se llame esa cosa especial que descubrimos en sus cuadros. Pintar no es ensuciar un pincel, mezclar colores y conseguir llenar un lienzo, o tal vez si, tal vez eso sea, sin más, pintar. Crear ya es otra cosa. Eurico Borges es, sin duda, un creador, porque si no existieran lienzos, ni paletas de colores, él sabría encontrar el camino hacia sus mundos. Alguien lo duda? Arena, tela de saco, madera, son sólo algunos de los materiales que ha encontrado en la aventura del vivir y los ha exprimido para que formaran parte de sus trabajos. Crear es investigar. Investigar es avanzar. Avanzar es crear. Un círculo casi perfecto, pero sin cerrar del todo, porque es necesario dejar puertas abiertas para que salgan los fantasmas que crecen y entren los espíritus nuevos. Así lo hade Eurico. Sus obras están impregnadas de esa investigación constante, de una búsqueda incesante quién sabe de qué, aunque tal vez eso sea lo de menos, lo importante es seguir y seguir, en línea recta, haciendo curvas o retrocediendo para recuperar retazos, pero siempre en algún movimiento. Crear también es pensar. No cabe duda. Los cuadros de Eurico Borges son, en una primera llamada, sencillos, con poder de seducción. Pero cuidado, una vez que han logrado captar esa atención será muy difícil escapar a ellos y ya estaremos dentro de esos mundos que el viajero artista ha descubierto y nos regala.
Las mujeres de Eurico ya no tienen un solo ojo, ya no nos miran de esa extraña manera difícil de desentrañar, que nos generaba cierto desasosiego, pero del que resultaba imposible huir. Ahora esas mujeres no nos miran desafiantes, han decidido transformarse: algunas en mujeres gato, otras en mujeres con cuerpos de pez y otras en mujeres sin rostro, simple y llanamente. De espalda, sin ojos, sin bocas. No importa, porque aún así nos hablan con fuerza, sabremos, si las miramos el tiempo suficiente, de su vida, de sus anhelos, y de sus miedos. “O dereito de ser diferente” nos reivindican  algunas de ellas en un campo azul de amapolas, con una sola roja en sus manos, que nos lo dice todo. Cuerpos imperfectos que en esa imperfección nos hacen ver la importancia de ser uno mismo, de buscarse, de encontrarse. “Preparada para ser eu”, nos susurra una de estas mujeres desde el cuadro y nos convence. Pero Eurico tiene muchas maletas de viajero con espacio para otras miradas y otros mundos. Naturaleza, folclore o paisajes, desde la mirada de un artista que ha conocido naturalezas distintas, folclores de muchos mundos y que guarda paisajes reales y soñados. Ellos también han quedado atrapados en sus cuadros, permaneciendo aparentemente inmutables, pero no es cierto, tienen vida y se van transformando, aunque tan lentamente que nunca nadie lo podrá apreciar.
Eurico sabe de la importancia de los detalles, y de que su obra es más que solo un cuadro, porque es un creador de historias, aunque deja al espectados la última palabra. El color, el tamaño, las líneas, los materiales, todos forman parte de ese gran argumento del arte, cuyo director no olvidó poner sus títulos, porque sabe que nada debe faltar en su gran obra. No nos da un respiro para dejar de pensar y descubrir nuestros propios argumentos a través de sus mundos: Corpo ou intelixencia?”. “Ser máis forte é ser mellor! Reflexionen. Mientras , Eurico Borges seguirá pensando para mantener esa creación propia. Un universo de mujeres, paisajes y sibre todo, un universo vivo.

Sonia Torre

Las  obras de Eurico Borges hablan de si mismo, de cómo frecuenta el mundo, de cómo lo vive y lo vivifica.
En su condición de nómada, en su errar, establece un diálogo con la materia del mundo –arena, tinta, piedra, paño- y la sustancia inmaterial –sueño, deseo, pulsión-, en una cohabitación de técnicas –pintura, colage, diseño- que transcienden el carácter operativo para asumir un compromiso más global con el envoltorio.
Eurico Borges manipula los materiales como un argumento de liberación de sus apremios, configura plasticamente cuerpos-materia que se mueven, que crean su espacio vital, que confirman su existencia.
A través del diálogo de fragmentos de la realidad con la imaginación pura, hace posible lo inesperado. La adicción de imágenes de implausible probabilidad- gato con tronco de mujer, cola de sirena- abre la percepción del cuerpo a nuevas perplejidades.
Crea, de esta manera, una nueva realidad que proviene de la manipulación libre y reflexiva, del gesto liberador que aplica a los materiales. Emerge, pues, una realidad dinámica en detrimento de la estabilidade de la imagen. Y da vida.
Al subvertir un destino trazado hay una afirmación de liberdad, un deseo de autonomía, una disponibilidad atenta a la impermanencia y a la metamorfosis de la vida.
Arte y vida se afirman como espacios de liberdad, territorios donde Eurico Borges desea un mundo diferente, pero sobre todo delira un mundo diferente, acosa lo que existe, persigue la utopía.

Isabel Machado.