Metamorfosis (Espejo Roto) 1962

Manuel Rivera made this artwork called Metamorfosis (Espejo Roto) – Metamorphosis (Broken Mirror) – at some point in his life, but we don’t know exactly when. Looking at this broken form, I imagine Rivera in his studio, carefully constructing this strange, almost tortoise-like shape. It’s like he’s piecing together fragments of memory, or maybe even the shards of a shattered mirror. The dark palette, with its murky greens and browns, gives a sense of something hidden, something buried beneath the surface. The texture is fascinating – it's not just paint on canvas, but a tactile construction of interwoven materials. I wonder if he was thinking about the fragility of identity, how easily it can be fractured and reformed. There’s a real sense of vulnerability, of exposing something raw and imperfect. It reminds me a bit of some of the Arte Povera artists who were using unconventional materials to challenge traditional notions of beauty and form. Rivera, like all of us, was part of a larger conversation about what it means to be human. And in this painting, he's found a way to express something deeply personal, while also inviting us to reflect on our own experiences of transformation and change.