Santiago Ydáñez

Santiago Ydáñez begins to become known nationally in the mid-nineties for creating an impactful series of paintings that confront the viewer's visual space with determination. Having had the opportunity to see his previous works in person (in which frontality, large formats, and monochrome were also very present), it is very evident that Ydáñez has taken a significant step forward.

Maintaining the constants we have already mentioned, in addition to the use of an almost cinematic foreground, a technique dominated by brushstroke gesture and material texture, as well as extraordinarily effective drawing, Ydáñez has centered—both figuratively and literally—the subject of his painting on itself—the self-portrait as one of the secular subgenres of art throughout all times—and on the scream as an inexhaustibly expressive metaphor—with Munch and Bacon serving as examples.

In another respect (but inseparably linked to what has been said), the execution, the technical resolution of these paintings has also undergone subtle but important modifications. What strikes powerfully is the ease, the almost spontaneous naturalness in depositing colored matter on a flat surface, which is transformed into a fantastic chiaroscuro of impressive movement and three-dimensionality.

Text provided by the Mediterranean Foundation. Author: J. B. Peiró.