The last paintings of a mistreated generation

Upon entering the gallery, the first impression registers fabrics with lots of light, an impact similar to that of a trip to the southwe pass Despeñaperros and our pupils narrow at the brightness.

going/coming and the Second exhibition curated by Sema d'Acosta for the Yusto/Giner gallery in Marbella at its new headquarters in Madrid after etc etc etcheld last spring and which sought to enhance young painting produced in Andalusia.

Now it's time to rescue the protagonists of the generation that emerged in the 1980s but whose work had not been seen in Madrid for a long time, although many of them are today the most respected painters in Cádiz, Málaga and Seville. So why this absence?

To begin with, it is about a generation of artists mistreated throughout the territory due to excessive internationalization shared by the new museums and artistic centers committed to overcoming the isolation of the Francoist dictatorship and updating our country, even if to the detriment of Spanish artists, whose inertia has lasted too long. Which, logically, has been reflected in the means of cultural diffusion.

However, the main cause has been the terrible exclusive selection at the ARCO fair, which in recent decades has been systematically destroying the fabric of galleries in what we naturally call the “periphery” for a long time. But how can we call Andalusia a periphery, especially if we are talking about painting?

The second impression, when we start to stop in front of fabrics and papers, is shared ironysymptomatic of this post-modernity in which these artists stood out, who crossed several trends, from neo-expressionism and trans-avant-garde, to abstractionism and post-minimal, passing through surrealist and pop revisions from conceptual perspectives, to combine their own figurative languages, not exempt from criticism.

Irony that gains density and, therefore, greater interest as we enter this space.

As it is an eclectic and very generous collective, with nothing less than thirteen artists, but inexplicably only two womenFirstly, I would highlight the arpilleras between figuration and abstraction of shell ybarra.

And the dark look of teenagers Salome del Campoto which the CAAC of Seville dedicated a mid-career retrospective in 2021, here with a wonderful display from their series courts.

In the background, in addition to the best known Federico Guzmanwe find in Seville and Malaga two authentically referential artists, who work in both painting and sculpture, the neo-baroque gonzalez work It is Chema Lumbrerashere with watercolors and a suspended sculpture, in which he uses the grotesque resource of animal parodies to express his critical narrative of current affairs.

We hope to see you all more in Madrid.

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