“Retrato de Indígena” is an intimate yet forceful acrylic on paper executed in 1982 and signed Costus Juan de O. The work presents a frontal portrait that emphasizes the sitter’s gaze and the sculptural presence of the head and shoulders. Rendered with assertive brushwork and a saturated palette, the painting translates facial expression into pictorial form, privileging rhythm, surface and chromatic contrast over photographic detail. The result is a direct, emblematic image that communicates presence through painterly means.
Technically, the piece demonstrates Costus’ confident use of acrylic on paper. The medium produces luminous, swiftly applied passages alongside areas of denser pigment, giving the surface an energetic yet material quality. Broad, textural strokes define hair and contour while layered color builds volume on the face and torso. The paper support contributes a particular tactility—edges and brush marks read with immediacy—so that the work functions both as a study in portraiture and as an object in which material and gesture remain visible and integral to meaning.
Formally, Retrato de Indígena negotiates a balance between stylisation and recognition. The artist simplifies planes and accentuates key features—eyes, nose, mouth, and the shoulders’ architecture—to create a concentrated expressive grammar. Colour choices and contrasts are employed not merely for modelling but as compositional agents that organise the image and guide the viewer’s attention. This disciplined reduction of detail while maintaining powerful visual legibility is characteristic of Costus’ portrait practice in the early 1980s.
From a collecting and curatorial perspective, the work is significant for its provenance, date and exemplary handling of the medium. Signed Costus Juan de O and dating from 1982, the piece sits within a formative period for the duo and is representative of their approach to figurative portraiture. Its modest format and strong visual presence make it a versatile acquisition—appropriate for focused gallery displays, intimate private collections, or groupings that explore late-20th-century Spanish portraiture and the Costus aesthetic.
In sum, Retrato de Indígena is a concentrated example of Costus’ ability to convert direct observation into a robust pictorial statement: a portrait where gesture, colour and surface converge to yield an image of immediate visual authority.
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