Untitled (Barcelona Series)
signed and dated 1961 (lower left)
oil on canvas
26" x 32" (65 cm x 81 cm)

León Gallery wishes to thank Christian M. Aguilarfor confirming the authenticity of this lot




The beauty of Alcuaz’s paintings from his “Barcelona Period” lies in their inherent potency in capturing and marrying the melodious sensibility of music with the vivid imprinting of evocations and impressions from a piece of visual art. Perhaps the secret to this enigmatic yet stimulating amalgamation can be found in Alcuaz’s Barcelona home. “I remember that every weekend, he [Alcuaz] would buy a bunch of flowers to bring a touch of color to our home in Barcelona,” says Ute Aguilar, Alcuaz’s wife, in her annotations to her spouse’s biography written by Rod. Paras-Perez. “There was always music in our home,” she further adds. Alcuaz’s ingrained affinity for music (He loved classical music and was good at playing the cello. His father, Mariano Aguilar, from whom he inherited the love for music, was also a musical composer) can be discerned in this 1961 work from Alcuaz’s much-coveted “Barcelona Period.” The painting is composed of two subjects superimposed and overpainted on one another. The first depicts a quaint forest scene populated with lush trees and a pristine river. The other shows an array of houses seemingly lining up a tranquil street in a suburban environment. Like a music player casting diverse, harmonious tunes vividly expressing a wide array of emotions, Alcuaz seamlessly weaves the often-contradicting themes of the pastoral and the urban/metropolitan into one painting that captures the best of both worlds. Moreover, the painting possesses a mystifying layer that Alcuaz himself could only explain. The work slowly reveals Alcuaz’s affinity for an abstraction that veers away from the material and confidently embraces the lyrical, enigmatic, and surreal. This Barcelona Period painting captures Alcuaz at his most gratified and consummate, an artist in his period of golden prosperity, both in the personal and poetic sense. Alcuaz made this work during his sixth year of settlement in Spain and fourth year in Barcelona, the sunny city that he made his permanent homebase in mid-1957. In this same year, Alcuaz was awarded the Diploma of Honor at the International Exhibition of Art Libre in Paris. (Adrian Maranan)