Enrique G. Saucedo

Besides the aesthetic presentation of the human body, which recalls associations with the Old Masters, it is, above all, traditional themes that play an important role in Enrique G. Saucedos paintings. We are confronted with Christian iconography as well as with the veneration of the saints and the Virgin Mary, phenomena which are shown in a contemporary context and dealt with criticism. With the aid of traditional vocabulary, Enrique Garcia Saucedo transports historical themes into the present - themes, which in the Mexico of today are still very closely bound to traditional faith rituals and old-fashioned attitudes towards devotional objects. The proximity to the Old Masters makes his works, at first, look like museum pieces that have long since been deciphered. Figures in Saucedo's pictures appear to the observer just as other-worldly as those of the Italian painters of the Baroque period. In their quiet theatricality and staged dramatic effects they awaken associations with Caravaggio. Enrique Garcia Saucedo's figures too, like Caravaggio's, are also disguised and seem to function as actors in a scene. Masked, bizarre and comical, with surrealistic attributes, they confront the viewer in elaborate costumes, as if they wanted to present a farce. The supposed realism, however, is transformed almost visibly, becoming a variant of surrealism.