Initially influenced by figuration based on and by the work of contemporary artists like Luis Gordillo (1934), throughout his career, Daniel Tamayo has developed an absolutely inimitable language of his own through which he constructs a new identity for the post-industrial Basque landscape.

His work draws from disparate visual sources, ranging from references to his own childhood (clowns, cartoons and comics) to images and elements from everyday life. The combination of all these references taken from his own personal visual archive results in a body of work consisting of highly energetic and colourful paintings, whose elements engage in mutual dialogue within a surrealist and fantastic scenario.

Drawing is a key element in the process of creation and construction of each one of his works, and is in fact at the very origin of all the images. Tamayo composes his works by starting with a prior selection of images from various sources (photographs, digital images, toys, scenes from comics, and so on). Carefully assembled into a composition, these images are outlined with pencil to create a sketch that will later be reproduced on the canvas. Once this meticulous process has been completed, Tamayo applies the colour with a vibrant, pure and energetic palette that covers the entire surface of the work.

Since the 1980s, the artist has shown particular interest in the three-dimensional and volumetric aspects of painting, something which is clearly patent in this work from the BBVA Collection where, in a composition replete with natural elements rendered in geometric forms, the artist undertakes a highly particular recreation of the shrine of San Miguel de Aralar in Navarra. The architectural whole has been reduced to volumes, creating an interesting three-dimensional effect and a sense of spatiality that brings the composition closer to the beholder. Some characters may be made out around the temple, topped with a cross that speaks of the holy nature of the building, and in a disjointed atmosphere. These characters include Eve plucking an apple in the bottom centre of the canvas. Tamayo also includes elements from the world of the imagination, creating a fantasy scene that seems to be in constant motion. The purity of the palette of the work and the apparently disorderly composition transports us to The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1450-1516), a painting that left an indelible impression on a young Tamayo during his visit to the Prado in 1966.

Aralar is an interesting example of the particular visual language of Daniel Tamayo, who, through a dreamlike iconography based on the accumulation and combination of elements from nature with others born in his own imagination, proposes a new reading of contemporary society and the post-industrial Basque landscape.