Vacaciones en París, 1 [Holidays in Paris, 1]
Jirafas [Giraffes] (1999)
Pencil and watercolour on paper
36.5 x 28 cm
BA Collection
Inventory No.: 1999.16.1
Ignacio Goitia’s painting revels in unthinkable, provocative, dreamlike scenes that satirise our globalised and postmodern society. The beings that inhabit his works range from his classic giraffes, to refined ladies, dandies and men in uniform, located in symbolic urban points or palatial rooms: ‘beneath the surface of the visible, these images dialogue with those types of deeper reflections: globalisation, uprooting, the loss of essence in today’s society, the wound of what migrates without finding a place…’ (Ignacio Goitia).
This style is a very unique mixture of Rococo exuberance, but also surrealist airs, pop style and advertising of the 1950s, produced by detailed drawing, care for perspective and a colourful and luminous palette. Gender issues, sexual freedom, authority and desire appear as a constant in his work. His apparently meaningless compositional structures are intended to question the aesthetic order, but also the collective imaginary based on codes conventionalised by history and culture.