From 29 September to 13 October, Madrid’s Galería Azur (Calle de Válgame Dios, 6) presents the exhibition La pintura guiando al pueblo (Painting leading the people), a selection of works by the internationally renowned Spanish painter Juan Pinilla.
The event, curated by Daniel Silvo, will be a unique opportunity for the Madrid public to appreciate a selection of works produced over three decades by the Melilla-born painter. His work, eminently from Malaga, is related to the figurative tendencies of the 80s, disbelieving the conceptualisms of the 70s; from the simplicity of a painting created by force of will, without pretentiousness or pose, he moves through post-avant-garde, neo-pop, new expressionism and some conceptual games that creep into his work.
The work of Juan Pinilla (Melilla, 1956) seems to be born of a pure impulse to paint. His figurations, with neo-expressionist colours and strokes, recreate scenes from his context and interests: bullfighters, animals, television characters, references to the history of art, religious and profane symbols, sensual and personal, but he also tackles political and humanitarian issues. This pictorial impulse, charged with freedom, is the same that runs through all European painting in the 1980s. Comic strips and classical painting are also visible in the themes that appear in his paintings, blurring the boundaries between high and low culture, which was typical of the post-modern era that flooded Western plastic creation.
