Bienal de Pontevedra

Manuel Casimiro presents three acrylic paintings inspired by reproductions of Francisco de Goya's Los desastres de la guerra (The disasters of war). These interventions are part of a more extensive work that Casimiro has been creating since 1974. Although the concept of the ovoid shape was conceived in 1968, this figure, empty of content, has gradually evolved over time. In the beginning, these shapes appeared on neutral backgrounds, but over the years they have invaded images of masterpieces kept in museums. In this case, Casimiro has worked on Los desastres de la guerra, where the ovoid symbol becomes an abstract actor that is part of the horror scene and the human suffering depicted by Goya, a scene which is still present in the history of humanity. Philosopher Jean-François Lyotard, in a letter he wrote to Casimiro in 1977, emphasised that his work was fascinating because was not only focused on the visual, but also on the symbolic and narrative, as these ovoids were used as stimuli to read the story told by the images in a new and different way.