Classics: El Sol del Membrillo

At the beginning of each autumn, the sun shines for just two hours on the quince in the garden of the studio of the Madrid artist Antonio López Garcia. Every year he tries to capture the majestic light in a painting. The painting process is meticulously recorded by Víctor Erice, whereby the similarities between the two disciplines - painting and filming - are clearly revealed.

From the moment López Garcia nails the canvas to the frame and drives two irons into the ground in front of his feet to fix his position behind the canvas, a subtle game of observation and staging unfolds. The simplicity of Erice's film is deceptive. What at first appears to be the registration of reality (painting the tree, filming the painting), upon closer inspection turns out to be subject to a sophisticated composition.

“What we have here is the perfect unity between feelings and order,” says someone about the painting; a statement that also applies to the film. In the meantime, time passes: by December the quinces have changed too much in shape to be a model, and the painter has to stop his work. The heroic fight that demands the utmost from the craftsmanship of both filmmaker and painter is also a fight against the passing of time.

Source: Eye

Exhibition Drents Museum
An overview of the Spanish artist Antonio López (1936) can be seen at the Drents Museum until June 2. López is a phenomenon in his native Spain and has been labeled as the 'greatest living realistic artist'. The exhibition Antonio López – Master of Spanish Realism is López's first major solo exhibition in the Netherlands. Paintings - including portraits, still lifes and enormous Madrid cityscapes - drawings and sculptures can be admired.