La Estocada Composición Taurina 1948

José Pedro Costigliolo made this painting, La Estocada Composición Taurina, with oil paint, probably around the 1940s, in Uruguay. Look at the hard-edged shapes and how they come together, like a jigsaw that's been forced together, or one of those impossible Escher drawings! I'm trying to picture Costigliolo at work, and how he might have put all these shapes down. He seems to be thinking about Picasso’s cubism, but taking it somewhere else. The cool palette of browns, blues, reds, blacks, and greys is interesting, creating an overall muted atmosphere. I see the figures of the bullfighter and bull rendered abstractly. The shapes interact, with the black forms looming and dominant. There’s a constant negotiation and tension between flatness and depth. The work shows how paintings have always talked to each other across time. By playing with this ambiguity, Costigliolo reminds us that painting doesn't have to be one thing, or tell one story.