Behind the Veil of Image: A Visit to the Santiago Serrano Studio
There are artists’ studios that are like time capsules: spaces where history, thought and emotion contained in decades of work are breathed. This is the study of Santiago Serrano. A few days ago, the Marquesa Gallery team had the privilege of visiting him to continue preparing the great exhibition that we will open in September. What we found was much more than paintings and sketches: it was an entire universe, full of silences, lights and gestures that speak of an artist’s constant search for the essential.
Santiago Serrano (Villacañas, Toledo, 1942) is one of the key figures of contemporary Spanish painting. With more than five decades of experience, his work has evolved from the color fields and floating geometries of the 70s to the subtle digital compositions of the last decades. At each stage, their language has been refined to invite us to a place of contemplation and memory.
A journey through his creative universe
Entering Serrano’s studio is to attend a dialogue between past and present. On the tables, small notebooks with drawings and notes; on the walls, large-format works with layers of color suspended, almost breathing. In a corner, three-dimensional structures from the Passion Instruments series are waiting to be revisited. Everything is imbued with the serenity and discipline of those who lead a lifetime in the trade.
In our conversations, Santiago shares reflections on his creative process, on how painting can be both material and spiritual. He tells us about his first exhibition at the Amadís Gallery (Madrid, 1971), a milestone that marked his break with figuration, and how his work was acquiring a more introspective tone in the 80s.
“What I seek is not to represent, but to suggest. Let the viewer approach and, in silence, complete the work with their own experience,” he tells us as he points to a canvas where black and ochre seem to merge into a space without limits.
Brushes of a trajectory
The exhibition we are preparing will be a tour of its universe from the 70s to today. Works that are part of such important collections as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Juan March Foundation or the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao will dialogue with recent pieces, many of them unpublished.
In the 90s, Serrano became a pioneer in Spain by incorporating digital graphics into his artistic practice, a gesture that earned him the National Engraving Award (1996) and opened new possibilities for exploration. In recent decades, his painting has become even more stripped, approaching an essential language where light and space are the real protagonists.
What will come in September
We want the exhibition at Marquesa Gallery to be much more than a show of works. It will be an immersive experience that allows you to discover the layers of meaning in Serrano’s work. In addition to the selection of paintings and drawings, we are organizing meetings and talks in the gallery to get to know the artist and his process closely.
For new collectors, it will be a unique opportunity to approach a creator with a solid track record and unmistakable poetic language. For lovers of contemporary art, a reunion with one of the great innovators of Spanish abstraction.