PACO DE LA TORRE

Almería 1965

Lives and works in Valencia

A representative of the Neo meta-physical painting since his participation in the Levante Peir exhibition. He is a collective member of Los Tres Caballeros (The Three Knights). He is linked to the My Name’s Lolita Art gallery.

Paco de la Torre researches the processes implied in the birth of the image and its plastic representation. In his works, he uses materials coming from the unconscious; he explores the process of synthesis and abstraction typical of a dreamlike language, investigates into the possibilities of memory as a model and experiments with the mechanisms of thought through automatism.

De la Torre conceives the painting as a way to represent ideas expressed in a silent way through the application of strategies of resistance based on technical, poetic and conceptual resources.

The poetry –especially present in his Works on Las Soledades (The Solitudes) by Luis de Góngora– has been a decisive reference in the use of visual tropes directed at strengthening the correspondence and paradoxical contrasts of his painting. Also highlighted is his interest in the key proposals for the Renaissance painters or the thesis on the historic Avant-garde where he finds lines of research directed at reformulating the concept of figuration.

De la Torre organizes the pictorial space by means of conciliatory tactics between illusionist conception and the abstract language. His paintings present scenic simulations where the light is converted into volume and the color into object. The use of painted architecture and architectural constructions, favor the shaping of rhizomes and ringlets that paralyze the tale. A figuration of a limit that would respond to a great extent, to primitive archetypes coming for the imagination of the author. The autobiographical nature of his work is based on the landscape of Almeria, linked to his childhood and adolescence. The desert, the beach or the Mediterranean architecture gives a rich iconic source brought about by his more significant metaphors. Another line in his current Works is the vindication of rationalist architecture through the pictorial reconstruction of projects developed for the Spanish Avant-garde. A clear example of this is the series El arrojo de la sombra, (The fearlessness of the shadow) where De la Torre carries out a review of the architecture of GATEPAC from designs, sketches, and other archive material from the A.C. magazine. It is also worth mentioning the exhibitions El arquitecto invisible (The invisible architect), dedicated to the work Guillermo Langle, and Humor vítreo (Vitreous humor), that makes up a particular architectural self-portrait.

Among the pictorial references the following painters are highlighted: Giotto, Pontormo, William Blake, Carlo Carrá, Piet Mondrian, Max Beckman, David Hockney y Pablo Palazuelo.

Consulted bibliography: Bonet, Juan Manuel, “El País de Paco de la Torre”, catálogo de la exposición Metáforas de Nada, Valencia, Club Diario Levante, 1997. Barberá, Adolfo, “La bella arponera son dos”, El acertado pie de DL, Valencia, Fire Drill, 2003. Huici, Fernando, “Paco de la Torre, pez volador”, catálogo de la exposición Becados Alfons Roig, Valencia, Diputación de Valencia, 1998. Pérez, David, “Excavando imágenes fronterizas”, catálogo de la exposición Paco de la Torre. Visiones sin centro, Valencia, Consorci de Museus de la Generalitat Valenciana, 1998.