CONTEMPORARY STAGES II (2005-2014):

Research on etching.

“In Goya’s time, the word caprice was identified with certain “diseases of reason”. There is evidence of this in leaflets that appeared in newspapers such as El Censor or in poetry by authors such as Meléndez Valdés or Jovellanos. El sueño de la razón produce monsters is starred by Goya himself submerged in a deep sleep and, behind him, dozens of nocturnal animals. With this, the author intends to launch the idea that a country where reason does not reign will be possessed, without remedy, by a whole series of human scourges and vices.”

López Riesco, A. “Los Caprichos de Goya: Literary Influences “. www.oralaborastudio.es

The financial crisis that broke out globally and hit Spain (especially) in 2008 wreaked great economic havoc on the population, reaching the dramatic figure of 6 million unemployed in 2012.

There is a complete restructuring of the social dynamics in the country and perhaps moved by these concerns, by a sense of vertigo or need, by the search for reason (which accompanies dark moments) or simply by an excess of time; Luis, my father, begins to develop veiled designs for his books, dark, uncertain. Abstraction (more or less figurative) becomes his daily expression. It is logical to abstract that the printing technique that will accompany him during these years will be etching, by the hand of the great painter and engraver Carlos Gonçalves.

During this period, by contrast, my father won his most important awards (with the exception of the 2003 World Biennials award). Among others, two national bookbinding awards.

A new prosperity, changes in the structure of the workshop, perhaps habit and of course a conciliatory maturity in the family environment make this pictorial need to lose its forcefulness, strength and freshness over the years.

Luis will leave for a period of reflection that will last a few years, in which his artistic creation will be reduced to occasional commissions and classic works.