Room 9

As much as the figurative option in the visual arts has mimesis as its main operating strategy, the results can be far removed from this external reality, in particular when the artist bases his work on a reality shaped by the work of previous artists.

Figuras en una casa, 1967, by Antonio López, is a magnificent example of how to create a parallel reality that is as disturbing as it is enigmatic. The expression of the two figures on the right, the unfinished body of the woman in the middle and the barely visible male figure in the shadowy area of the door are the protagonists of a scene that is undoubtedly disconcerting. The mirror reflecting an image that is clearer than that of the room itself abounds in this dimension of appearance, or apparition, populating what we call reality.

In turn, La estancia, painted between 1982 and 1983 by Guillermo Pérez Villalta, confronts us with an eclectic approach in which the different thematic and stylistic citations define a figure that is as autobiographical as it is symbolic.

The artist himself appears in self-portraits four times: on the right, lying down in a dream; in two others, painted on the central wall (in one of them with two heads) and, finally, seated deep in thought. A unique version of Jacob´s biblical dream, painted many times over the centuries.

With the works of Antonio López and Pérez Villalta, that of Chechu Álava: the title of this canvas painted in 2010 is taken directly from Simone de Beauvoir's first autobiographical work: Memories d'une jeune fille rangée, illustrates a pair of almost unreal stylised female figures. The pictorial treatment and the chromaticism generate a composition in which the figurative elements seem to merge in a vaporous and magical atmosphere.

Both Roma, Trastévere, 2017, and Peras, 2018, by Los Bravú, question the concept of reality in a world of images with solvency and a sense of humour. Against the background of a street, all the elements seem to be floating, weightless: a plant, a rocking chair, a dog, a slice of pizza and a soft drink, a pear tree and pears, in addition to two female figures in a Roman statue pose and 15th century faces. One dressed for the night, the other for the day, they personify the equivocal dialogue between reality and fiction, highlighted with augmented reality glasses that prevent them from seeing their immediate surroundings. And the sculptures of pears on the floor are the ellipsis in this endless story...

The canvas by Santiago Ydáñez, Y tenía corazón, 2017, is an explicit interpretation of the painting of the same name by Enrique Simonet. They were both painted at the Spanish Academy in Rome 127 years apart and are largely indebted to Rembrandt's La lección de Anatomía. Beyond the aesthetic disquisitions on the original and the copy, the plastic solution leaves no room for doubt with regard to the authorship or the time at which they were painted.