THE TWO WORKS WERE CREATED EXPRESSLY FOR THE COLLECTION OF ANTEQUERA DOLMENS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE MUSEUM

‘Face to Face’ and ‘Louisa Tennison’ are the two works by Puche in the collection of Antequera Dolmens Site Museum. They were created expressly for the inauguration of the Museum, headed by the President of the Regional Government of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno; the Mayor of Antequera, Féliz Barón; the Regional Minister of Culture and Historical Heritage, Patricia del Pozo; and the Director of Antequera Dolmens Archaeological Site, Bartolomé Ruiz, among others.

The Museum is a space that completes a journey beginning over 30 years ago, when this singular location was designated as having Outstanding Universal Value in Antequera (Málaga). This resulted in the prehistoric monuments of Menga, Viera and El Romeral, together with the natural enclaves of El Torcal and La Peña de los Enamorados, being declared World Heritage Sites by Unesco in 2016.

‘Face to Face’, the vanishing point from the interior of the Dolmen

‘Face to Face’ (charcoal and colour pencil on Saunders Waterford watercolour paper. 200 x 110 cm. 2022), the first work by José Luis Puche, is located at the entrance to the permanent collection of Antequera Dolmens Museum.

‘Face to Face’ represents the point of view from which the viewer contemplates the vanishing point observed from inside the Dolmen, creating a dialogue with the surrounding scenery, its history, and the mysticism and magic around it.

It is infused with a pinkish colour throughout, which could represent the sunset itself, with a star chart that can be glimpsed in the last few minutes of sunlight, as if forming part of the moments just before falling asleep.

That Dolmen is oriented towards the landmark of La Peña de los Enamorados of Antequera, where not too long ago a graphic design was found on the chin of the ‘face’, partially lost, which is thought to have been made at the same time as the Dolmen was built. This graphic design was embodied in the bottom part of the work, not merely as a pictorial gesture, but rather as a floral decoration that is camouflaged among all the surrounding vegetation.

The work is conceived as a palimpsest. Different layers of drawing and colour are superimposed on top of each other, like the layers of the land itself, like the history of the civilisations that have inhabited the earth, one on top of each other, and hence we are made of the same material as the drawing.

‘Louisa Tennison’, the representation of ‘stone on stone’

This other work belonging to the collection of the Archaeological Site is a representation of the hand gesture of ‘stone on stone’, as if supporting the site’s inclusion as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2016, titled ‘Luisa Tennison’ (charcoal and colour pencil on Saunders Waterford watercolour paper. 56 x 56 cm. 2021).