Rope

From the exhibition Santiago Costa presented in 1935 at Galeries Laietanes in Barcelona, we could see that the artist was making a new contribution to the subject matter of his works: everyday life, either in a rural or maritime setting and principally male, although the presence of women would not take long to appear.  The figures, with their sturdy and firm legs and arms and anonymous faces in which we could recognise nobody, but in which we could see the tough and tiresome tasks. The sculptures combine different textures and the part which the artist leaves as a wall or a stair, which sometime we see unrefined. In some cases it seems that the block is trapping the figure, or that the figure emerges from the stone. Santiago Costa i Vaqué (1895-1984) A cousin of the sculptor Julio Antonio, he studied at the Llotja School of Barcelona and later worked for his cousin, from whom he received the classical influence and realist treatment, during his early period. Between 1919 and 1925 he produced a series of works in South America before returning to Madrid. His work is based on a block concept with significant integration within the cubic space. Its dominant characteristic is force and detained movement. He also produced paintings, with landscapes and popular scenes as themes. Text by Loreto Meix