Omen

Raquel Forner

, 1949

Oil on canvas, 50 × 40cm.

Raquel Forner carried out studies for many of her works that, in some cases, went on to become independent works, leading to other paintings. This occurred with diverse feminine heads, which served to demonstrate anguish, fear, impotence and other terrible sentiments that overpowered Humanity at that time. These figures are the transmitters of the artist’s primary interests since the outset of her career: mankind and its dramas. In the case of Presagio (Omen), Forner presents us with one of these women, seen here with bare shoulders, her hair pulled back and arranged with a series of kerchiefs that are pleated and fall to one side, creating a plane where a swallow arrives to make its nest. The large foreground corresponds to a portrait, in which a series of curves intersect with one another, giving this composition its character, remarkable for the anguished eyes of the figure. The color, especially the yellow in the upper section, serves as the base for the appearance of the bird and emphasizes the lines of the construction, that the artist expresses with loaded brushstrokes that create textures that enrich the painting’s surface