In mid-2015, during a casual revision of their individual work, Koptak and Escalé discovered in each other's archives dozens of repainted pages of classical art books, that each of them was still working on alone, and from which they were extracting new scenes, or mythological figures and beasts.
This discovery caused a certain shock within the group, and since a long collaboration is only possible if based on mutual admiration, on seeing these recent collections they both remembered the original reason of Miroir Noir's existence.
The quality and quantity of the material made it clear that for the first time Miroir Noir could break its Golden Rule and consider an exhibition showing Koptak and Escalé's separate graphic universes; at the same time showing how each one of them faced his Cecilist Spirit, which is the Aragonese neostyle of artistic adjustment or correction, applied with clumsy hands and uncomplicated minds over works of the Old Masters. An essential part of Cecilism is to amend the damages, while concealing updating efforts, and usually ending up in a simple (and often funny) correction. In this process, pictures that can be extracted from the repainted work are based on a larger picture - which is the well-known historical image in itself.
(see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj-eTk1ZlD8)
The Cecilism Project is Miroir Noir's new exhibiting project for 2016 and 2017- recapturing that sense of conceptual lightness and iconoclastic humour that has always characterized the group. Work on paper, fresh and provocative - for the first time a de-constructed Miroir Noir: Escalé and Koptak riding side by side in freedom!






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'Los guques de Osuna y sus higos' with F. de Goya. Oil on paper, 2016. Private Collection.

'Los guques de Osuna y sus higos' with F. de Goya. Oil on paper, 2016. Private Collection.