Antonio Banderas

ANTONIO BANDERAS (Málaga, 1960).
"La cita", from the series "Secretos en negro", Málaga, 2010.
Digital photography on paper on Dibond.
Copy H.C., 1 of 4.
Signed, titled, justified and with information of the print run on the back.
Series exhibited at the Cervantes Institute in Madrid in 2010.
Slight damage.
Measurements: 75 x 100 cm.

The famous actor 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.

In the photograph shown here, "The Appointment", Banderas inverts the classical imaginary in which the female body was an object of contemplation, submission or salvation, to transform it into an agent of action and domination. The woman, dressed only in underwear and a short jacket (bullfighter type) stands on her tiptoes, holding the banderillas up high. In front of her, the man appears bare-chested, in a submissive or resigned attitude, holding bull horns with both hands. This image, of strong allegorical content, places the male in the position of the domesticated animal exposed to sacrifice.

Banderas' 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. The treatment of light is especially remarkable: in this photograph, the contrast between the illuminated characters and the dark background creates an almost tenebrist atmosphere, heir to the baroque pictorial tradition, but reinterpreted from contemporary digital aesthetics. The plasticity of the body and the accuracy of the reflections reveal a considerable technical mastery and a very careful aesthetic intention with which he enters the field of constructed photography.