Polyphemus

Polyphemus is a creation by Serrano from Irons (Hierros), the first series developed following his return to Spain. To create this piece he became completely immersed in informalist abstraction. It was displayed as part of Irons and Bronzes of Pablo Serrano (Hierros y Bronces de Pablo Serrano), the artist's first individual exhibition in Spain, held in the Saint Catalina of Ateneo Room (Sala Santa Catalina del Atenuo) in Madrid from January 8 to February 9, 1957. In this exhibition, Serrano set his desire for order in chaos in motion through a combination of stones, iron remnants, and other scrap metal. Even though he did not attempt to achieve verisimilitude in his pieces by using a model, here we can see that he did play on the myth of Polyphemus and his iconography when constructing the piece. This is not so much due to the fact that he included stone, present throughout the series, but how he integrated it: set in the hands of the figure or the single hole where the stone acts as the head, which seems to refer to the single eye which characterized Polyphemus. The piece does not appear as it did originally, as several of the original elements that made up the piece have been lost. This is something that occurred with other pieces of this series due to the delicacy of the works, as well as being subjected to many transfers throughout their existence.