Classic Portraits with Movement | The Magic of Still Life | Pepe Hidalgo
About
“…dare to do … without expectations.”
Classic Portraits with Movement | The Magic of Still Life (April 5th – May 28, 2023)
Classic Portraits allow me to present a classic figure in two distinct ways. The image is from the side and from straight on. Combining the side and the front perspective creates movement. The fusion of creating a classic portrait and the movement at the same time is what creates an interesting “Double Vision” of each figure. The clothing worn by the figures contributes to the classic look, dating them to times past. These portraits at the same time as being classic can become deformed with the two faces. In some, there is still, simple beauty, yet in others, they become grotesque, serious, or funny. Each and every one of them are people I have created from my imagination.
Pepe Hidalgo’s style is narrative in the figurative and abstract genre. His figurative is not related to realism, it is created from his imagination, and his memory of his sense of reality.
Hidalgo’s paintings achieve strength through the glazes or velatures he applies. He will apply them until he achieves a greater sensation of space. Hidalgo displaced oil by acrylic in the nineties. He paints direct sketches on the canvas. There is a distinctive element present in his paintings, a two-coloured cord or string that acts as a reference guide between reality and imagination, which, by remaining in time, has become a hallmark of identity.
Gallery
His artistic process began in adolescence during frequent visits to the Museo del Prado in Madrid, where he discovered his first teacher, Francisco de Goya. His work is influenced by Velázquez, Zurbarán, El Bosco, movements of the 20th century, Picasso and American artists Francis Bacon, Freud, Esteban Vicente, and Pollock.
Art has allowed him to “free himself” and express himself without prejudice, and to dare to do what he feels without expectations. Many people ask him where he gets his ideas for his paintings. When you know him you realize he mixes his knowledge of astrology, mythology, history, life, and experiences. The ideas for his paintings arise from everyday life, and the search to understand the relationship of past or present events with the human being, in relation to who and what we are. This is reflected, manifested, and expressed in his paintings.
