Antonio Banderas

ANTONIO BANDERAS (Málaga, 1960).
Untitled, from the series "Secretos en negro", Málaga, 2010.
Digital photography on paper on Dibond.
Without signature.
Series exhibited at the Cervantes Institute in Madrid in 2010.
Slight damage.
Measurements: 100 x 75 cm.

In this photograph, which is part of the series "Secrets in black", three women dressed in red satin, are pressed against each other as if they shared a common impulse: heads raised, gazes fixed upwards, arms raised in a gesture of longing or invocation. Like sorceresses, pagan virgins or contemporary priestesses, they seem to participate in a silent and powerful ritual. The crescent moon -perfectly white, suspended in the blackness of the background- symbolizes the tension between what is within reach and what is distant. The women's hair, short, sleek and inky black, gleams under carefully directed lighting, adding another visual rhythm to the composition. As in the entire Secretos en negro series, Banderas explores here a territory where the body is symbol, light is language and black is the absolute stage of the unconscious.

Antonio Banderas has developed in parallel to his film career, especially in recent decades, a photographic work that has become known in international exhibitions. "Secrets in black" is the title of the series to which the photograph we are bidding for belongs, a series made up of 23 photographs brimming with theatricality and glamour, in which women appear as independent and empowered. She uses myths and references from literature, painting or opera and linked to Spanish culture such as Carmen, Don Juan Tenorio, The Barber of Seville or Goya's "La Maja Desnuda". From these references, he creates a sensual and elegant atmosphere in an intimate and studied environment. This series could be seen at the Cervantes Institute in Madrid in 2010.

Her work in Secrets on Black is characterized by a theatricalized, minimalist and conceptual staging, in which the body -generally female- becomes a vehicle for the exploration of themes such as desire, the multiplicity of the self and inner silence. The choice of black as a background unifies the series and refers to a symbolically charged space: black as the hidden, the intimate, the unconfessable.