Eugenio Granell

EUGENIO GRANELL (A Coruña, 1912 - Madrid, 2001).
"Behind the Sphinx", 1959.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner. Titled and dated on the back.
Measurements: 51 x 76 cm; 64 x 88 cm (frame).
In this painting, made in 1959, Eugenio Fernández Granell is in a moment of full creative maturity, already installed in New York and firmly committed to the surrealist language. The work seems to immerse the viewer in an almost underwater universe, populated by corals, organic forms and structures in constant metamorphosis, where color and texture build a living, pulsating and ambiguous space. The title introduces a clear allegorical and symbolic dimension. In this context, the sphinx acquires a fundamental relevance: an ancestral figure associated with enigma, hidden knowledge and the resistance of thought in the face of power, it becomes a metaphor for Granell himself. Exiled, ideologically persecuted and marked by a life of forced displacement, the artist projects in this image his reflection on identity, memory and the mystery of history. In these years, Granell naturally integrates the influences of the Caribbean and Latin America, territories where he lived during the previous decade. The chromatic exuberance, biomorphic forms and certain resonances of indigenous art dialogue with European surrealism, especially with the mossy landscapes and enchanted forests of Max Ernst, in which nature seems to hide a secret life. All this merges into an organic abstraction that is not decorative, but profoundly conceptual.
The 1959 painting thus reflects the artist's vital and intellectual crossroads: political exile, the creative freedom of surrealism and a critical vision of the contemporary world. Granell turns the image into a space of poetic resistance, where myth, nature and thought are intertwined.
Eugenio Fernández Granell was a surrealist artist and writer deeply marked by exile and political commitment. Born and raised in Santiago de Compostela, he began his training in music before moving to Madrid, where he became involved in Marxist circles and the POUM. After fighting on the Republican side during the Civil War, he was forced into exile. In 1985 he returned to Spain, already internationally recognized, receiving important awards and consolidating his legacy with the creation of the Eugenio Granell Foundation in Santiago de Compostela.