Mingote

In the beginning, said Mingote, there were only two people. Apparently they were no longer alone, but Mingote left the human being abandoned and astonished and perplexed on multiple occasions, not by mistreating him but by manifesting the human affliction which marks our daily existence. In «Hombre solo», which appeared for the first time in 1970 and turned into an authentic philosophical declaration, Antonio Astorga, great connoisseur of Mingote, wrote that “Loneliness is for Mingote pure circumstance, which can be enriching (for a few privileged people) or disturbing (for the rest of mankind). Alone, astonished, perplexed, in those fiercely human men, Mingote traces the strangeness and the estrangement before a disturbing and dramatic world”. And Mingote himself maintained that “between people, immersed in the crowd, is where loneliness is most wounding”. Now, shortly after his decease, we select a few of those bewildering drawings which provoke a resigned and complaisant smile from those who stare at them, causing a feeling of astonishment and frightening surprise as we sense that something from those characters can be our own reflection. Exhibiting our astonished and perplexed loneliness, wished and detested, but always present in our lives. The pieces presented in this small exhibition were created in a wide temporal frame, from the 60s to the 90s, more than a quarter of a century to scrutinize and document the permanent loneliness of men. All drawings were published in the Blanco y Negro magazine, forming a part of different series and sections that Antonio Mingote fed during 60 years and are now kept at the Museo ABC of Madrid. The tenacious presence of man alone hovered over the whole work of the brilliant artist that from the 70s published several works centred on this issue. May this brief repertoire of philosophy, drawing and humour serve to at least awaken the slightest smiles in those men and women, alone or accompanied, who contemplate them. Inmaculada CorchoDirector Museo ABC