Benjamin Palencia

BENJAMÍN PALENCIA (Barrax, Albacete, 1894 - Madrid, 1980).
"Bull", c. 1960.
Incision on marble.
Work included in the Benjamín Palencia Archive.
Signed in the lower central area.
Measurements: 57 x 118 x 2 cm.
In this late work, Benjamin Palencia transfers to marble one of the most persistent and symbolic motifs of his career: the bull. A key figure in the Spanish artistic renovation of the 20th century and co-founder of the Vallecas School, Palencia always understood art as a way to express the telluric essence of the Spanish landscape and culture. In the fifties and sixties, already fully consecrated, his language is refined to an extreme synthesis, where drawing becomes an essential and almost archaic gesture.
The bull, recurrent in his iconography, appears here reduced to incisive, direct lines of great formal economy. There is no descriptive will, but evocative: the animal is built through sure strokes that suggest strength, stillness and monumentality. This theme connects with Palencia's vision of a primitive, rural and mythical Spain, where nature and its symbols acquire a universal value.
The choice of marble as a support reinforces the singular character of the piece. In contrast to his better known production on paper or canvas, this work stands out for its material and almost sculptural dimension, situated in a borderline territory between drawing and relief.
Toro is thus an exceptional work within Palencia's body of work: intimate and emphatic at the same time, it summarizes his interest in formal synthesis, his link with the Mediterranean tradition and his constant search for an essential expression of the landscape and symbols of Spain.