CARMEN CALVO (Valencia, 1950). "Zurbarán", 1989. Mixed media, rope and canvas on board. Presents stamp on the back of the Nave 10 Gallery (Valencia). Signed, dated and titled on the back. Measurements: 110 x 60 cm; 120 x 67,5 cm (frame). The title of this work gives us a key that allows us as viewers to understand the artist's aesthetic influences and their resignification in a contemporary language and context. Carmen Calvo has made numerous works inspired by the Spanish painting of the Golden Age: Sánchez Cotán, Zurbarán and later Goya's Black Paintings". This concept is expressed directly by Calvo, who stated in Makma magazine (July 4, 2022): "What I do is to manipulate objects by incorporating them into another context and another way of seeing. Mannequins, for example, have been treated since the Renaissance, and then Picasso or Breton have also worked on them by manipulating them. Everything has been invented here. I also refer to Zurbarán, to the old still lifes, and that's it, because I come from a classical education". Starting with the name of the painter Zurbarán (1633-1635), we can observe a great influence of the mastery of white that made Zurbarán famous, visible in works such as "Homage to Saint Hugo in the refectory of the Carthusians, 1630-1635 (Museum of Fine Arts of Seville) or Saint Serapius (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford). In addition, the rope that crosses Carmen Calvo's piece may remind us of the belt of the "St. Francis standing contemplating a skull" (Museo del Prado), where three knots represent the three vows of the order. Carmen Calvo studied at the Schools of Arts and Crafts and Fine Arts in Valencia, and graduated in advertising in 1970. She would later broaden her training thanks to scholarships from the Ministry of Culture (1980), the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid (1983-85) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for her residence in Paris (1985-92). During these years Calvo began to be recognized, receiving distinctions such as the I LaSalle Seiko Painting Prize of Barcelona (1985), the Alfons Roig of the Diputación Valenciana (1989), a scholarship in the I Biennial Martínez Guerricabeitia of the University of Valencia (1989), and the selection for the XLVII Biennial of Venice (1997). The artist had begun her exhibition activity in 1969, taking part in a group show held at the Círculo Universitario de Valencia. She made her individual debut in 1976 at the Temps gallery in her hometown, and since then she has shown her work individually in various cities in Spain and the United States, as well as in other countries in Europe, America and Africa. Works by Carmen Calvo can currently be seen in art institutions, museums and private collections all over the world, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Marugame Hirai in Kobe, the MACBA in Barcelona, the Fonds National d'Art Contemporain in Paris, the IVAM in Valencia, the Chase Manhattan Bank collection in New York, etc.