Urban (Metaphysical) Landscape

In Paisaje urbano (metafísico) [Urban (Metaphysical) Landscape], he makes a clear allusion to Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) and to the school of metaphysics, in the form of the juxtaposition of different objects in the same scene, the sharp use of perspective and the lengthening of shadows in the space.

The artist names the piece and clarifies in parenthesis that it is a landscape that goes beyond reality, and with it, he alludes to the trend ever-present in surrealist art. By appropriating his concepts, he transfers an iconographic repertoire of arches and domes that allude to Florentine landscapes and to Turin’s Mole Antonelliana, evocative of the presence of Nietzsche, from Italy to Mexico, in the same way as he transfers the aqueducts and temples of a colonial city in our country.

The dimension of the architectural elements reduced to geometric bodies is extremely clear in this piece that belongs to the museum since 1994, due to the comparison he establishes with the small characters added to the scene. Contrary to the harsh shadows used by the father of metaphysics, the shadow cast on the stairs in this painting stands out because of its smallness.