SENTIMENT AND CREATIVITY FREDOM
By Adelinda Allegretti

All though all artistic expression, in the broadest sense of the term, is the result of a whole series of experiences, meetings and intuition, it is also about the emotions they manage to arouse in the spectator, thus making a work of art unique and unrepeatable. This then is what makes Gabriela Bernales a "true" artist, one fraid of showing her feeling to the entire world. This is evident in "Enamorados and Mi Madre adorada ( 1991), which express that sincerity of feelings which distinguish her, even before the paintings, as a parson. Spontaneity, simplicity and humility are rare talents that Bernales, in turn, manages to convey in her work. In each sign, each single brush stroke, the portrait of her mother, whilst expressing elegance an austerity also expresses the unconditional-love binding the artist to the adored mother figure.

Born and raised in Per and, despite belonging to a wealthy family, Bernales, has experienced almost too much poverty and pain which her nature has never allowed her to put behind her, like something belonging to the past and forgotten forever. These then are the sentiments that imbue

El grito del dolor and Muerte del Padre (1992 ), paintings still capable of achieving high levels of pathos, which most art does not manage to express. Her desire is not to be a "conceptual", but immediate artist who takes her cue from daily reality, from life's small and large dramas, but also from moments of joy and serenity.
Her studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera left and indelible mark.

Although the social context and the figures portrayed change, her desire to measure herself directly whit her own world remain. Marcha estudiantil is fully-fledged condemnation; the protagonists are young people, her contemporaries, who have had the courage to vindicate their own rights. Even when dealing with themes such as this Bernales does nothing other than talk about her own world. Her art consists of the following: portraying what she has personally experienced, i.e. her own liger, a thesis in which great artists have always believed, the only real way to " experience" the subjects painted.
Despite being inspired and admiring the great artists of the past (Van Gogh and Picasso are just an example), any "label" that one wishes to attribute to Bernales's work be unsuitable owing to the fact that it would be limiting.

Although her painting shows a true knowledge of the masters and works which have contributed to writing the history of art, at the same time there is an assimilation, which evolves, in a completely personal and original key, far removed from what could be termed the "starting point". Her nudes are a clear example; even her tribute to Marilyn Monroe, photographed and portrayed thousands of times, acquires a new, unexpected freshness. The some intensità recurs in works such as Fanciulla snella e bruna…..and Mi piaci silenziosa perché sei come assente…(1998).

Amongst her most recent works, the series of matadores, with their visual and emotional impact, triumphs. Man and bull, intelligence and strength, meeting head on to measure themselves against one another. The Corridas, a modern transposition of ancient bullfighting, have accustomed us to the victory of man over animal strength. Even in Bernales works the bull is bleeding, woulded almost to death or agonising, but just as frequently it is the matador who comes of works, who is thrown into the air by the animal's rage, or trodden into a pool of blood. And yet, in spite of the theme and the violent colours, there is no expressionist dread in these paintings - on the contrary, they convey and extraordinary vitality.