Contemporary artist José Luis Puche makes the new statuette for the Talía Awards
JLPuche Team
In Contemporary Art, Sin categoría Posted March 28, 2023
THE AWARDS CEREMONY FOR THE TALÍA AWARDS, ORGANISED BY THE SPANISH PERFORMING ARTS ACADEMY, WAS HELD ON WORLD THEATRE DAY ON 27TH MARCH.
The awards were created as an equivalent to the Goyas in the performing arts sector.
Several months ago, artist José Luis Puche was commissioned to make a new statuette for the awards by the directors of the Spanish Performing Arts Academy.
An iconographic interpretation of Talía
According to Puche, “from the very outset, I was keen to make an iconographic interpretation of the myth, so instead of Thalia wearing a crown of flowers, she is depicted as a flower herself, blooming amid the stems, and the mask that often accompanies her is absent as she is already in mid-performance. The figure of a snail is incorporated in this narrative –you can see it on one of the stems– to represent the talent of the individual receiving the award, because talent is forged as long and slowly as a snail moving along the ground.”
“As in all my works, I wanted to leave my mark on the sculpture, so I took special care to define the garments and the vine… as if they were the strokes I make with my materials when drawing,” said the artist.
Puche explained that “the statuette started out as a rough sketch, before a clay prototype was made and it was then cast in bronze. It weighs approximately 3.5 kilos.”
Awards Ceremony
The ceremony took place at Teatro Español in Madrid and was presented by Cayetana Guillén-Cuervo. It was broadcast on television channel La2. In this first edition, the musical Company, directed by Antonio Banderas, received the highest number of nominations.
Spread across 26 competitive categories, the Talía Awards were voted for by the more than 700 members of the Academy.
Photo Credit: María Álvarez
