Interpretations of the Portrait of José Luis López Aranguren

Interpretations of the Portrait (Interpretaciones al Retrato) is one of Serrano's most personal series. It is the one he worked on the most throughout his career after starting it in 1955 at the end of his Uruguayan phase. He approached a genre most associated with academics from expressionist angles and did not seek to make the pieces look exactly like their physical counterparts in order to capture the personality of the person portrayed. This can be observed in this bronze piece dedicated to José Luis López Aranguren, where asymmetry and warping have been applied when shaping the features of the philosopher. The loosely outlined eyes, the ears of a very distinct size, the mouth, and the unique shape of the head create a type of caricature in this piece which, far from having a comedic aspect, seeks to capture the gravity and intellectual pose of the figure in clay.