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Belluga square (Murcia)

Etching. 50 x 35cm. (Board: 37 x 25cm) 1970’s

Private collection.

He was only 21 years old when he won the 2nd National Prize of Engraving. During the interview with Ismael Galiana for the newspaper Hoja del Lunes (1- II - 1960) he explained the method he had used to make the painting «Head of a Woman», with which he won the prize.

Although he didn’t used this technique very frequently, there are many different engraved pieces, from this lithography to the serigraphy, (La Verdad, 7-V-1996), as well as etching...

In this piece, the line of the drawing is the protagonist. The theme is an urban landscape, which wasn’t a common topic in his diverse work «... the strength of the artwork is in the line of the drawing; a cautious, baroque, very elaborate drawing». (La Verdad. 5-II-1991)

Párraga mixes lines of different thickness and his capacity to disregard what is -in his opinion- unnecessary. This is how he obtains the extreme simplification of the baroque façade of the cathedral of Murcia.

Once again, he uses a precise rule of thirds: the board is 36cm tall, and is divided horizontally in three sections of 12cm each. He also uses the most space possible, as usual, and this time it was so extreme that a part of the façade was left out.

It is curious how a dashed line frames the whole area of the sky. It is like a strange morse code, which makes the Cathedral look like a cardboard cutout.