Ofrenda de frutas [Offering of Fruit]

Ofrenda de frutas [Offering of Fruit]

  • 1994
  • Ilfochrome on paper with secondary support of mounting board
  • 93,5 x 68 cm
  • Edition 1/2
  • Cat. F_12
  • Acquired in 1995
By:
Isabel Tejeda

The Banco de España Collection has three photographs by Basque artist Alberto Peral. Born in Santurce (Vizcaya) in 1966, Peral first appeared on the Spanish cultural scene in the early 1990s. Using a strongly conceptual approach, he has worked in a great variety of disciplines, including drawing, photography, installation and video. However, it is perhaps in the medium of sculpture that he feels most comfortable and in which he has created his best-known works. Peral himself considers that his pieces in other languages ultimately reference sculpture. In an interview with Rodrigo Carreño, he said: 'I am a sculptor, but not so much in the idea of working the material; rather, my head is constantly thinking about the elements. I come from a 1980s object-based tradition of representing things physically. Whenever I have made video or photography it has always been related to that previous three-dimensional experience. That's why I always play with two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality. I have tried other media, but always with a view to experimenting and I end up returning not to the object but to the three-dimensional and the physical'. Alberto Peral is linked to the classical avant-garde in his use of simple geometric forms —ovoids, spheres and cones are all common features— endowed with a warm, organic treatment that appeals to the eye and touch. He thus makes pieces that project anthropomorphic reminiscences and establish a powerful presence in the domain of the real, albeit concealed by the apparent neutrality of the white cube.

This ambiguity prevails in the three photographs from the Banco de España collection, (Offering of Fruit, 1994; Lock 1 and Lock 2, 1999). The first of the three has been selected for its subject matter for the exhibition on still lifes. In this publication, Álvaro de los Ángeles draws a link between Offering of Fruit and Vik Muniz's still life, Fruit Basket  (also in the current exhibition) based on the Caravaggesque influences of the two works. To different extents, the two pieces both use photography, as well as classical influences and the symbolic power of the image, to make reference to the baroque still life or naturaleza muerta, of which there were some important examples from the Spanish artistic scene of the seventeenth century.

In this case, the fruit —a bunch of black grapes, pears and apples— is depicted as an offering, handed over by bare male hands. There are strong references to baroque languages in the light and the timing, in which the objects appear suspended and frozen. However, the meaning of the image is very ambiguous. The photograph is taken against a black background and the human being emerges out of a strong chiaroscuro, showing only his hands and a white loincloth covering his abdomen and genitals; these fragments of the body, together with the fruits, whose sense of offering underlines the title of the photograph, are illuminated in a dramatic, very theatrical fashion. Poetics and beauty are used as means of generating emotion in an image whose iconography seems familiar, referencing a rite whose origins go back to the beginning of time, to the primordial moment of culture. Darkness also draws us to the mystery of the ancient sacred spaces, accessible only to the initiated, wherein mysteries took place that linked the contingent with the beginning of everything.

In this offering, the status of the giver is not clear: Is he embracing and protecting the fruits of the earth or is he squeezing them? The fact that it is part of an unidentified human body, whose face has been stolen from us, reifies the figure, generating a continuum with the nature it sustains. In a subtle way, both subject and fruits appear to be delivered, offered.

Isabel Tejeda

 
By:
Isabel Tejeda
Alberto Peral
Santurce (Bizkaia) 1966

Alberto Peral studied Fine Arts at the University of the Basque Country, though he has lived and produced his art in Barcelona for many years now. His first solo show was at the Miró Foundation’s Espai 13 (1992), a leading event for emerging art in the 1990s. Despite being mainly known for this three-dimensional work, Peral has also used other techniques including drawing, video, photography and installation, as is common among the artists of his generation.

His three-dimensional work comprises simple forms based on geometry, primary colours to unify his pieces, and a tactile quality that, in many cases, results in polished surfaces; the viewer is thus called to act with more than just their eye, touching or at least wanting to touch. A conceptual undercurrent lies behind these simple forms, with a compelling presence where the complex and fertile relations between reality and representation are resolved.

Solo shows of Peral’s work have been held at the Suñol Foundation (Barcelona, 2015); Espacio Bananeiras (Río de Janeiro, 2008); Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, 2007); the Public University of Navarre (Pamplona, 2005); the Pilar i Joan Miró Foundation (Palma, 2000); and the Sala Rekalde (Bilbao, 1996). He has received a Scholarship from the Spanish Academy in Rome (2005); a Visual Arts Grant from the Marcelino Botín Foundation (2002); the Pilar Juncosa Award (1999); and the Gure Artea Award (1996).

Isabel Tejeda

 
 
Vv.Aa. El Ángel caído: Alberto Peral, Bilbao, Fundación Bilbao Bizkaia, 1995. Vv.Aa. Escultura, fotografía, dibujo. 1994-95: Alberto Peral, Basauri, Casa Municipal de Cultura, 1995. Vv.Aa. Alberto Peral, Barcelona, Ajuntament de L’Hospitalet, 1997. Vv.Aa. Paisaje: Alberto Peral, Jesús Palomino, Palma, Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, 2000. Frederic Montornés Estrechamientos, Pamplona, Universidad Pública de Navarra, 2005. Vv.Aa. Alberto Peral: bailando, Madrid, MNCARS, 2007. Jesús Palomino Un encuentro casual: Alberto Peral, Barcelona, Mas Art, 2009. Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 3. Vv. Aa. Flores y frutos. Colección Banco de España, Madrid, Banco de España, 2022.