Ramiro Fernandez Saus last exhibited in London in 2012, so it is with great excitement that we are able to present a new series of paintings based on the theme of the ‘Passions’. In the last two decades Fernandez Saus has become one of the most well known Spanish artists of his generation. In 2005 he was given a retrospective at the Museum of Sabadell and his works are in the collections of the Reine Sofia in Madrid and the Albertina Museum in Vienna. Fernandez Saus has a particularly strong following in the UK of important collectors who remain passionate about his work.

Fernandez Saus has sometimes been attracted to the this type of thematic collection of paintings. In the past he has worked on the Miracle of the Birds, The Life of the Gardener, A Series of Sports, Stories of the Opera… This collection of paintings has been inspired by the work of the Catalan painter Joan Brotat who in 1954 who was commissioned by the philosopher Eugeni d'Ors to create a group of paintings on the theme of the Passions. Fernandez Saus has gone on to create a series of paintings based on his own unorthodox passions.

His is a completely free interpretation and is lead by the way the Passions adapt to his imagination and iconography. The usual cast of characters make appearances; tigers, dogs, cats and birds appear within the interiors. Hogarth and other artists of the eighteenth century frequently depicted the passions as a fall from grace. Fernandez s offers us his poetic and human account of his interpretation of the passions. This series of thirteen works 49cm x 57cm evoke a theatre and each painting depicts a different passion.

Fernandez Saus has also created a new painted bronze sculpture for this exhibition. “The casual observer might assume that there was something folky about Fernandez Saus’ work; far from it. This is not a sensibility derived from popular art forms such as painted inn signs or fairground decorations. It would be more accurate to adduce a kinship with 18th century French and Spanish painting, to look for comparisons among the achievements of the Rococo and Baroque. In fact Fernandez Saus is a circus master of his fantasies, an adept of concealment and disguise, a skillful manipulator. Not at all naïve, he is a deeply sophisticated artist who enjoins us to revel in his paintings and be happy, for through happiness do we understand the world better.”