Alfonso Costa

ALFONSO COSTA BEIRO (Noia, A Coruña, 1943).
“San Paio,” 1977–1978.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Signed, dated, and titled on the reverse.
Measurements: 114 × 146 cm; 126 × 158 cm (frame).

This work belongs to the period in which Alfonso Costa consolidated the neo-figurative, expressionist, and dreamlike style that would define his mature body of work. Following the Juan March Foundation fellowship that enabled him to travel to Florence in 1972, the artist further developed a career that was already widely recognized, marked during the second half of the decade by a growing presence in national and international exhibitions.

In “San Paio,” we see a fragmented body, subjected to intense physical and psychological tension. Suspended in an ambiguous space, the kneeling figure appears to be breaking down into dislocated limbs, while a large hand emerges from the foreground. Costa thus transforms figuration into an inner vision, constructed through free associations and a deliberately uncertain sense of space.

The artist combines precisely modeled areas with glazes, transparencies, and broad, dry brushstrokes that allow the background to breathe. The grayish tones are articulated through subtle shades of pink, green, and blue, interrupted by the intense red of the hand on the left. This chromatic contrast concentrates the expressive tension and reinforces the mental and symbolic nature of the scene.

The work exemplifies the importance of movement within Costa’s painting: understood as instability, torsion, and the continuous transformation of the figure. The large format amplifies this sensation and envelops the viewer in a space where the body, memory, and the imaginary merge. This composition is particularly representative of the most ambitious aspect of his work from the 1970s, a period that contemporary critics associated with Neofiguration, Surrealism, and the expressive renewal of the human image.

Alfonso Costa trained at the Escola de la Llotja in Barcelona and held his first exhibition in 1967. In the early 1970s, he became associated with the Trece Gallery, and following his stay in Florence, he was highly active as a painter, printmaker, and muralist. His work is included in the collections of Afundación, ABANCA, the University of Santiago de Compostela, and the Museum of Fine Arts in A Coruña, among other institutions. In 2005, the University of Santiago de Compostela dedicated a retrospective exhibition to him.