RORSCHACH HEADS II

RORSCHACH HEADS II (2005 – 2006)

Right after starting the Post-Suprematist series (2005-2006), Ciria once again surprised himself by experimenting with the head-icon as the only configuring element in the composition, which broadened the work begun in the series in significant ways. If the figures retained the law of frontality imposed by Malevich, in Rorschach Heads II (2005-2006) (as had already happened in Rorschach Heads I), every painting in the group is intended to be given a dramatic meaning and have emotions enclosed in the different positions of the heads, in the hope that the viewer can project or empty a subjective meaning onto the compositions.

The Rorschach Heads II series, which is composed of only ten paintings, retains the petrified textures whose features are furrowed by a geometry in red, grays and white that negates the features of the face. The surfaces are wrinkled and textured without eyes, mouth or nose.

Of note is how we can see that one of the important differences that defines Ciria’s work when he arrived in Manhattan is that he began to paint the grounds in flat colors. And even where there are geometric elements, the tarpaulin or canvas-support, an element that had been characteristic of the painter’s work since he embarked into abstraction in 1990, can no longer be seen. The artist was ready to make an about face in his career and cool down the gestural expressiveness of his Madrid series, paint the totality of the support (most times in a neutral color) and make a return to line and structure, to drawing as a container for the stains. And the revision and invention of figures related to Malevich after Suprematism and this limited series of heads are a clear example of that.