The myth of Icarus has appeared on several occasions in the work of this artist, represented by that “lost wing” which reminds us of his temerity in trying to approach the sun.

Both Patiño and his wife, Menchu Lamas (1954), belonged to the progressive Galician group Atlántica. As well as his dimension as a painter, he pursued a parallel line of activity as a theorist through his writings.

His work is notable for its intense colour and a strong intellectual component. He is interested in painting as a physical and poetic phenomenon. Using a severely restricted chromatic palette, he constructs his paintings with two dominant colours in which he uses a thick or thin layer of paint indiscriminately.

This work is from a period characterised by monochrome backgrounds, on which he places repeated motifs or thickly textured objects, revealing his interest in

 Informalism 

Term coined by the French art critic Michel Tapié (under the name of art informel) to define the art movement that covers a whole range of abstract and gestural trends that emerged in Europe in the 1940s in parallel with the development of

 Abstract Expressionism 

This contemporary painting movement emerged within the field of abstraction in the 1940s in the United States, from where it spread worldwide. Rooted in similar premises and postulates as Surrealism, the Abstract Expressionist artists regarded the act of painting as a spontaneous and unconscious activity, a dynamic bodily action divested of any kind of prior planning. The works belonging to this movement are defined by the use of pure, vibrant primary colours that convey a profound sense of freedom. The movement’s main pioneers were, among others, Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) and Hans Hoffman (1880-1966). Leading Spanish exponents of the movement are Esteban Vicente (1903-2001) and José Guerrero (1914-1991), who lived for some time in New York City, where they were in first-hand contact with the many artistic innovations taking place there around that time.

in America. The movement is defined by a non-figurative language that lends a very significant role to the use of materials. The defining moment for Informalismo in Spain was in the 1950s, with a generation of artists whose languages embraced both European Art Informel and American

 Abstract Expressionism 

This contemporary painting movement emerged within the field of abstraction in the 1940s in the United States, from where it spread worldwide. Rooted in similar premises and postulates as Surrealism, the Abstract Expressionist artists regarded the act of painting as a spontaneous and unconscious activity, a dynamic bodily action divested of any kind of prior planning. The works belonging to this movement are defined by the use of pure, vibrant primary colours that convey a profound sense of freedom. The movement’s main pioneers were, among others, Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) and Hans Hoffman (1880-1966). Leading Spanish exponents of the movement are Esteban Vicente (1903-2001) and José Guerrero (1914-1991), who lived for some time in New York City, where they were in first-hand contact with the many artistic innovations taking place there around that time.

. These included, among others, Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012), Josep Guinovart (1927-2007), August Puig (1929-1999), Antonio Saura (1930-1998), Manolo Millares (1926-1972) and Rafael Canogar (1935).

 . The wing of Icarus is one of his “primordial emblems” or “root-signs”, as the artist himself calls them, along with others such as chairs, cyclists, amphorae and fragments of nets.

Standing out on a golden background scored with cracks holding little accumulations of golden tones is a large black patch — occupying a large part of the canvas — with a red line beside it. Above the patch we see Icarus’s wing, and it is then that we recognise the vertical red line as a reference to his tragic end and the black as an allusion to the wax charred by the heat of the sun. The circle and the handprint refer us to human presence, a humanity whose senses are clouded by striving for the unattainable.