Space Project
December 1 – January 18, 2019



Far from the avantgarde and the critique of the time, Freda Sargent (London, 1928) developed her own language which sways between the figurative and the abstract. Inspired by literature and poetry, the artist explores issues related to painting such as composition, light, and color. She is likewise interested in searching for references within landscape, portrait, still lifes, atmospheres and the history that have surrounded her for many years in Colombia.


Sargent studied painting at the Royal College of Art in London and then travelled to Paris with a grant from the French government. Here she met Alejandro Obregón, with whom she came to Colombia halfway through the fifties.


Her career as a painter has had two stages: the first in Europe and the second in Colombia, where she experienced an opposite process to that of national artists. Whilst these grew up in America and developed a local language and were later fed by the European and American avantgarde movements, in contrast Freda grew up with the revolutionary proposals of the interwar movements in Europe and then came to Colombia, where she was influenced by the themes, light, and colors of the tropics.


Sargent builds her paintings with a palette of few contrasts and a subtle variety of striking tones, creating enigmatic spaces that remind us of dreams, tales, or visions of childhood. The different shades of blue, happy and festive yellows and the reflections of a skillfully managed light are part of the record of what surrounds her. Her sensitivity leads her to uncover the fragility of things and the fleetingness of the moment that, through the enchantment of her stroke and gesture, leads to the development of a figurative language where there is a great interest in composition, light, and perspective.


As she herself confirms “I paint what I see, I paint my life”, and it is through the representation of her surroundings and her memories that, with an abstractionist and gestural composition, makes her painting an experience of immediate understanding for the spectator.