Hombres maduros haciendo berrinches y otras cosas de mariquitas

Focus on engraving

Paquito del Barrio

21  March - 18  April  2026

It seems to be honorable that a present book should be derived from an old one: since it pleases no one to owe anything to its contemporaries. Jorge Luis Borges, Fictions

FICTIONS - OF DRAWING

I would like to begin this text with an improbable proposition: all of reality is reduced to a virtually infinite set of fictions. From this universe, the singular work presented by Paquito del Barrio in this cycle of drawings stands out today. Talking about this set of works is an exercise as arduous as walking on the sharp edge of a razor, because in these literal times it becomes an absolutely inglorious task to explain that the apparent praise of bullfighting is precisely a non-praise of it. It is like trying to paint a leprechaun with the hat that makes him invisible, that is, a paradox in terms.

For a deep understanding of the works of Paquito del Barrio present here, it is important, from the outset, to underline that the series "Tauromaquia", by Francisco Goya, from which del Barrio is inspired, contains a remarkable ambivalence in relation to the spectacle archaic of bullfighting, oscillating between an epic portrait of it and a vision of the violence and cruelty evident in such a reality. The ambiguity of this set of engravings is, in fact, inherent to the entire work of "el Sordo", especially if one thinks about the antinomy reason/madness, profusely thematized by Goya, without being able to distinguish which facet prevails.

At this point, it is important, then, to consider the "Tauromaquia" series for what it essentially unveils: a refined pictorial arena, in which Goya's genius spreads with an unsurpassed talent and virtuosity. In each scene we witness, more than a barbaric show, the combination of the basic elements of drawing, point, line and stain, in an economy of breathtaking means, with the ultimate intention of generating life, movement, fictions full of simulacrum, through the dazzling magic of the Spanish grandmaster.

Aware of all this, the Galician artist Paquito del Barrio executes in the series "Hombres maduros haciendo berrinches y otras cosas de mariquitas" a movement of metamorphosis of the Goyesque imaginary , without betraying what is essential in the original engravings. The history of these works begins to be drawn on a trip by the artist to Portugal, in which, during a brief stay in Lisbon, he visits the exhibition "This is Now", by António Faria, composed of a set of prints with collages from the series of engravings "Disasters of War", of Goya, which mark him indelibly.

It is in a moment of creative emptiness that, years later, for mere entertainment, Paquito del Barrio recovers a complete series of reproductions of "Tauromaquia", printed in the 60s of the last century, collected in a deluxe edition and long acquired by the artist in one of his frequent forays into second-hand booksellers. He then decides to use Goya's engravings as an arena for a unique drawing adventure. Armed with red and black gouache, the colours that had fascinated him in António Faria's work, he covers the animals with dots, lines and spots, developing shapes that give us a hint of plant nature.

Looking closely at the forty works of Paquito del Barrio, we see that his trace left a trace, a trace of the original scenes, producing the immediate effect of making the human presence ridiculous. In fact, veiled from the animal universe, we ask ourselves what all those men do with spears, stocks, and other weapons of bullfighting work, or what is the meaning of a certain figure suspended in the air by his rod. The enigma of metamorphosed forms remains, where the only visible animal, a lying dog, gives us the certainty that we are not facing a compliment of the human and even less of bullfighting.

Ricardo Castro Ferreira