25 February 2025 - Francisco Sanchéz - "Jagged mountain peaks"

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Whether it is a city in the background surging up from the nowhere, a sea or mountain landscape, a sense of desolation is always present in Francisco's surreal oeuvre; this latest painting could be considered a major work - amongst others - in his artistic production and embraces a turning point, reaching a new maturity. 

The wild peaks rise to the sky and the barren landscape speaks of isolation and solitude. 

The contrasts of the palette from grays to blacks, to whites, are more pronounced, highlighting the drama of the image of mountains and jagged peaks.

This narrative, together with the floating mist, structured in four horizontal lines that seem to converge and culminate at the top of the picture, above the central peaks of the image, approaches the 19th century German Romanticism, represented by the German Romantic painter, Caspar David Friedrich.

But the underlying composition is what bestows the emphasis to this painting.

The importance given to the visual resonances in the structure of the painting are not explicit but captivate the eye. The artist compares the configuration to musical chords that create a rhythm, and talks about finding a formula for reaching a melodious compilation with various sound registers to harmonize the formal composition. 

Through mirroring diagonal repetitions and disruption, such as the irruption of three aligned peculiarities, the tower, the lamppost and the trees he vertebrates the painting. 

Located on top of one of the peaks, a monolith rises surrounded by birds. To the left of the painting, and adding to this inhospitable environment, a lamppost emerges from nowhere and conveys a surreal feeling. Further down, a few trees surge into this inhabited world.

In so many of Francisco's paintings one is transported back to the surreal world of Game of Thrones.

One description in particular is so close to the images and the many elements the artist uses in his depictions. 

It is the one referring to the Eyrie, the ancient castle and seat of House of Arryn, situated on a shoulder of the peak, known as the Giant's Lance, several thousand feet above the valley floor in the Mountains of the Moon, in the Valley of Arryn.

The representations of the high mountain peaks, the snow and the desolate environment, the steep paths, the stairs that go nowhere, the waterfalls, the castle – here represented by a monolith - submerged in the fog, all these features contribute to evoke the fantastic world of the novel written by George R.R. Martin in a startling dialogue with the painter's work.