La Muerte del Torero, 2022

Bullfighting has long generated commentary and controversy. To anthropologists and psychologists, the corrida has signified everything from a confrontation between culture and nature to a symbolic exposition of gender, sexual, or filial relations.

The focus here is on the climactic scene of a bullfight, where a matador is being speared by a bull. Our eye is drawn upward to the matador’s distressing demise. This scene encapsulates the core conflict of a bullfight, pitting human skill and bravery against the raw strength and aggression of the bull. The moment captured is likely a pivotal one, evoking a mixture of tension, danger, and spectacle. Where does your empathy go when you view this painting? To the bull? The Matador? The collision of human ambition and the forces of the natural world is invoked in this struggle.