Arcadi Blasco

(Muchamiel, Alicante, 1928 - Majadahonda, Madrid, 2013)

Paisaje Lunar

1980

earthenware, refractory clay glazed and patinated with oxides, and wood

204.8 x 293.6 x 11 cm

Inv. no. 901

BBVA Collection Spain


Blasco’s beginnings as a painter brought him into contact first with
and then with abstraction. His works are dominated by a geometric conception of space while the presence of spirals and incisions made with oxides, the legacy of traditional pottery, are constants throughout almost his whole practice.

Within his abstract universe, he generates a space of curved geometries that are often reminiscent of biological forms. He builds murals with ceramic pieces in such a way that the different textures give rise to spaces of highly diverse colouring and intensity, which he achieves by means of the use of differing oxides that lend the ceramic exceptional tonalities during the firing process.

Paisaje lunar belongs to his series of "walls to protect from fear". In it one can appreciate the round holes, eyes or craters and shafts which are one of the signs of identity of his personal vernacular. The landscape he depicts is eminently pictorial. The work, made up of five independent framed panels to be hung on the wall, evinces its ambiguity with regards its status as painting or sculpture. In fact, it is only its material quality, divested of any traces of brushwork or pigment, which brings us closer to sculpture.