The Prettiest Circus in the World

"El circo más lindo del mundo" is from a series Barradas produced largely in 1918. The series is characterized by a sort of horror vacui on the pictorial plane. Indeed, thanks to the rhythmic and chromatic saturation of that plane, the figurative intention at play in some portions of the work is barely detectable. Barradas would develop these paintings on the basis of sketches, many of them started at cafés and finished off at his studio. This piece also includes the letters, words, and numbers characteristic of his watercolors and drawings starting in 1917 as well as the ever-present image of the wheel, which became a sort of symbol in his paintings from this period. The circus-like quality of the painting spelled out in its titles lies less in the image than in the pictorial space’s festive and jocular quality dominated by contrasts, with the green- blues on one side and the red-yellows on the other. There are also elements of the world of childhood in the work (ragdolls, toy cars, spinning tops, balloons); starting in 1916, Barradas was interested in images as a powerful educational tool for children.