Review: Marcial Rincón

They say yellow is the colour of warmth, optimism and fun. It's the colour of the sun, but also of fire, and it can convey agitation and imbalance. In the new series of canvases by Marcial Rincón different tones are mixed together, but yellow blazes on the viewer's retina and dominates the psychological effect of his paintings.

That's the case, for instance, with El Molino, in which a girl seen from behind makes her way through the yellow immensity clutching her toy. The Madrid painter's famous urban landscapes have been devoured by the flames of this abstract background that refreshes the viewer like a well-poured beer on a terrace in the capital.

Along the same lines as El Molino is Figurando, a curious artwork for its landscape format, but once again glowing with light in its technique. Here yellow no longer feels quite so dominant on the canvas. The greens, blues and oranges, always sparkling, create a background across which this group of people, also seen from behind, walk serenely. That calm the figures convey somehow contrasts with the bustling rainbow behind them.

We find the relationship between the figures of Popular and the abstract background more harmonious. In fact, in this canvas we get the feeling that everything sits on the same plane, thanks to the faceting of the figures, which at times come close to melting into the yellow magma. As in some of his urban landscapes, where the figures relate to one another, Popular puts the emphasis on movement, on harmony and on the celebration of life, leaving nobody behind.

In Volcán, however, the meaning of the artwork stands out less than the technique. Two tourists, from a dark hillside, look out over this chromatic explosion in which yellow makes more sense than ever. Introducción is the other side of the coin: the figures have disappeared, and the viewer, at last, no longer has any stand-in on the painted surface, no longer gets to look through anyone else's eyes. Now it's the layers of colour, built up out of facets, just as Marcial Rincón likes them, that take full control of the composition, as also happens in Intangible, whose title says more.

In this yellow period there had to be a combination of the tradition of the Madrid urban landscape that has brought Rincón so much success with the chromatic blaze of his latest aesthetic experiment. It's called De Noche, but it could just as easily be called Arde Madrid. Yet the metaphorical flames that take over the lower part of this landscape-format canvas don't seem to stand for upheaval or revolution. In fact, neither the Royal Palace nor the Almudena is burning, they shine all the brighter on that flaming bed.

But, as we said, Marcial Rincón has been popular in his city for years thanks to his urban landscapes, which he has exhibited for two summers at Barajas Airport: a good way to introduce the attractions of Madrid to the many tourists who arrive in the capital in the dog days of summer.

Although Marcial Rincón has always been described as an expressionist geometer, in the Madrid painter's paintings we see a happy convergence of two tendencies: the throbbing vitality of Impressionism and the technical faceting of some of the Post-Impressionists. The energy his urban landscapes give off is a clean energy, with no beating about the bush, one that doesn't stop to interpret reality. Pure urban life, and nothing more (nor less).

In technical terms, too, Marcial moves away from atmospheric painting, looking for (and finding) the right brushstroke for that transmission of clean energy: a (re)construction of reality through chromatic facets that manage to reach the essence of what is depicted while also transferring that sense of perpetual movement: it's the heart of Madrid beating, by day and by night, in its streets, squares and monuments.

In canvases such as Plaza de Madrid, Por el Mercado de San Miguel, El Rastro, or Madrid Noche, Marcial Rincón fully achieves what he sets out to do: a warm, contemporary, clean, sincere and popular painting that conveys the rhythm of the city.

We invite you to visit Marcial Rincón's gallery on Artelista.