Salomé Guadalupe Ingelmo 2019

Alejandro Cabeza made this 70 x 50 cm oil on canvas painting of Salomé Guadalupe Ingelmo. This is a study in darks, a tonal exercise. Look at how the background almost swallows the sitter. It’s about the physicality of paint, too. The artist’s clearly happy to let the medium do its thing. It's neither thick nor thin but layered. The hat’s brim is defined by a hard edge, achieved, I think, through masking. It's not about hiding the process, it's about revealing it. My eye keeps going back to the sitter's face, that little highlight on her cheekbone. It’s as though Cabeza’s saying, “Here, look at this, consider the subtleties and slightness of human form”. I can see a lineage of tonal painting in this work. John Singer Sargent comes to mind. But while Sargent captured the Gilded Age, Cabeza is capturing something much more personal and intimate. It’s not about perfect representation, it’s about capturing a feeling, an essence.