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Untitled (Methamorphosis Series)
Original title: Sin título (Serie Metamorfosis)
1989
Carbon and Conté pencil on paper
Dimensions: 211.5 x 201 cm
Reference: ACF0491
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The earliest known paintings by Ignacio Tovar depict windows—sober in manner, geometric in composition, ascetic in the choice of colour—or rather give the impression that the artist is evoking windows through light and colour. Later on, the artist heightened the complexity of his compositions in a series entitled ‘Estrellas’ (Stars), breaking the rigid planes of the windows and making them flow together and superimpose. He also brightened his colour palette. He followed the series with ‘Casas’ (Houses), which has similar formal characteristics, but is more subdued. During the second half of the eighties, the figurative elements gradually became more defined. At the same time, he focused his references on the traces and vestiges of human presence—the human figure, however, is always absent—or on instruments, tools or symbols representing it in relation to its civil status or religious sensibility. Occasionally, they would appear surrounded by a faint aura, and floating in an empty space indicative of their transcendence. “In drawing,” the artist said years later, “I found the most suitable medium. Black charcoal on white paper allows me to concentrate on the question of adjusting the form to the original idea, avoiding the additional complications of colour. Furthermore, drawings are more direct, more immediate; they go from the head to the heart and from the gut through the arm, through the fingers, to the paper. You make them with your hands and that leaves a mark. The unsteadiness of the hand, or fingerprints left on the paper, give drawings a human warmth that is more evident than in painting.” Over the years, the extreme simplicity of black and white has given way to a heretofore-unknown enrichment and delicacy in Tovar’s choice of colours, which characterise and distinguish his palette.

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