Luis Argudín

(Mexico City, 1955)

El suntuoso caudal de su apetito I (The Sumptuous Flood of Its Appetite I)

2002

oil on canvas

120 x 180 cm

Inv. no. CFB004

BBVA Collection Mexico



This painting, whose title transcribes a line from Muerte sin fin (Death Without End), the long poem written by José Gorostiza in 1939, and its twin version were shown in a solo exhibition held in 2003 at the Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, commemorating the centenary of the creation of the Museo de Historia Natural. For the series Luis Argudín had photographed the holdings of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México once housed in the impressive early-twentieth century iron building. In The Sumptuous Flood of Its Appetite I, belonging to the BBVA Mexico Collection, several human and animal skulls, the bust of a man, stuffed birds and dismembered limbs are arranged together following a poetic and arbitrary rationale, casting shadows on red-black fabrics and with a backdrop curtain that frames the scene as if in a theatre play.

The varied arsenal of props, theatrical emphasis, the suppression of the anecdotal in favour of the metaphor, the light emanating from the regal palettes of colour, the reflection on the very act of painting or the history of this discipline, are signature features of Argudín’s practice.