Leonel Maciel

(Soledad de Maciel, Guerrero, 1939)

Guasanga at Valle de Bravo

1976

oil on canvas

120 x 100 cm

Inv. no. CAB056

BBVA Collection Mexico



Folk art and cartoon strips have exerted an indirect influence on the mishmash of shapes and colours in Maciel’s painting, which also brings to mind the compositions of pre-Hispanic codices. A storyteller at heart, Maciel renders on paper or canvas stories he has picked up from others or of his own making. He never forgot his beginnings as an illustrator of children’s stories, or his admiration for caricaturists. Even in his oil paintings, the forms are outlined and cut by the hand of the drawing artist to give them volume. On the other hand, the figure itself borders on abstraction, incorporating blotches, dots and bands made with geometric patterns.

Maciel is never shy of an explosion of colour, which he uses without restraint, in a palette in which greys are just as important as primary colours, although rendered in harmonious contrast. Such is the dexterity with which he usually combines them, that he manages to obtain a multiplying effect. Likewise, he often invented the humorous picaresque titles before actually executing the work itself.