Artists - Part 79

 Gonzalo Orquín

Gonzalo Orquín is a Spanish realist painter.  Born in Seville, Spain in 1982, he studied Fine Arts at the University of Seville, then transferred to the University of Perugia in Italy in 2005.  He has lived and worked in Italy ever since.

Orquín is fond of painting naked males, and he is unashamed to be seen naked himself.  Above, Orquín poses with his painting Model at the Horse.

Here's a rear view of Orquín.

Let's look at some of his work.  Above, Icaro, 2005 recalls the legend of Icarus, the boy who could fly but flew too close to the sun.

Nu a la fenetre, 2009.  The French title means Naked at the Window.

Another French title: Apres l'amour, apres Fabbri (After Love, After Fabbri), 2011.  Fabbri is an Italian company that sells gourmet foods like chocolate covered cherries.

Grande Inferno Romano (Great Roman Hell), 2011.

Orquín is a photographer as well as an artist.  In 2013 he was about to open an exhibit of photos of same-sex couples kissing in beautiful Baroque Italian churches.  One of the photos is above.  Then the gallery received a letter directly from the Vatican threatening legal action, saying the Church was against the exhibit because it showed "expressions of affection that do not belong in a place of worship."

The gallery cancelled the exhibit.

In 2014, Orquín and another artist painted this street art in Rome called La Cappella Porcina (The Pigs' Chapel), perhaps expressing his opinion of the Church.

Back to realistic portraits: this is Il Ragazzo dei Cardellini (The Goldfinch Boy), 2021.

We end with Jaceck, 2022, a portrait so realistic, I thought it was a photograph.  But it's not a photo, it's a painting measuring 80 x 60 cm (30 x 24 inches).