Vintage painting "Bullfighting: fall and capture" by Juan Barjola

Impressive engraving by Juan Barjola, signed in the lower right corner and numbered on the left (49/99). Under the title “Bullfighting: Fall and Catch” it represents a bullfighting scene full of drama. The series to which it belongs is characterized by depicting scenes of constant fighting. In it, the characters from the ring intermingle dramatically with those from the stands: spectators, picadors, bullfighters and bulls. Within bullfighting, the theme most widely represented by the author was precisely the moment of participation of the horse, with a fatal result for the latter. A triumphant moment is never depicted. As Antonio Gamoneda describes in his work Barjola, bullfighting and destiny: “I believe that the horse always has the role of a tortured victim, quickly dragged to death by an action to which it is alien, an action in which the horse is the "innocent". That is why there is always a gesture of supreme pain, of protest, of supplication in the emergence of his head, in the horrible twitching of his teeth. If there is piety in Barjola's paintings (which there is, I am sure), the representation of it is entrusted to those horse heads in their unbearable, clamorous expression." In general, Barjola's work is deeply marked by the warlike atmosphere of the time he lived in, but it stands out in a special way in the series of Bullfighting engravings, directly inspired by the tensions and traumas suffered by the Spanish Civil War. and in the verses of Rafael Alberti referring to this topic. They are also often related to “Guernica” (1937), for the immortalized representation of the horrors of war and, in this specific case, for the horse's head as a symbol of pain and suffering. An author with a great personality, he uses the expressionist style to do so. Reality is deformed in order to be expressed in a much more subjective way, showing feelings and emotions under a filter of pessimism. Dark, sordid themes are chosen, a degraded world, full of loneliness, misery, anguish, violence and death, all through quick, loose and expressive brushstrokes and a clear rejection of mimesis, all as a reflection of existentialist bitterness and tragic vision of the human being and life. Juan Barjola (1919-2004) Born in Extremadura, Juan Barjola was a renowned international author, whose work oscillated between abstraction and a very personal expressionism. He trained between the School of Arts and Crafts of Badajoz, the School of Fine Arts of San Fernando and the School of Arts and Crafts of Madrid. Thanks to a scholarship from the Juan March Foundation he traveled to Paris and Belgium, where he continued his learning. Among the numerous awards he received, the Extremadura Medal stands out in 1991, the Eugenio d'Ors Gold Medal in 1963, and the National Prize for Plastic Arts in 1985. In 1988, on the occasion of the inauguration of a museum dedicated to his career in Gijón, he donated a large part of his work to the institution, where it is currently preserved and studied, as well as in the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum, Ibero-American Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts of Asturias... Dimensions: 87 x 118 x 6 cm. / 73 x 105 cm. The frame and the glass that protects the work are offered as a gift, but have value in themselves. It is provided at no additional cost so that when his artwork arrives at your home or destination it can be displayed immediately. Any damage to the frame itself, which does not affect the integrity of the artwork, cannot be accepted as a valid reason to open a claim or request a cancellation. Reference : 306583