His large paintings unconventionally spread on the floor of his studio. To reach them, he needs a big paintbrush with a long handle. To manage it, he cycles around the paintings. These astonishing paintings take us by surprise because of their disturbing roughness. It disturbs the artist at work and the viewers looking at them. The paintings of Miguel Ybañez literally attack the viewers. First by their colours, and then, after the attack of rich reds, blues, yellows and greens, one hardly has time to breathe in: colours are forms shaped by hues. Extraordinary unity in two layers. Astounding unreal space. Ybañez controls the pictorial surface, using three basic elements: colour, form and space. In this infinite space replete with sensation, colour and form may be traces of a civilisation that was too much concerned with itself, unable to detect its own danger. Yet the artist can feel and see it even though he cannot express it in words. He tells us about it in his paintings, yet he does not speak as a mentor or raise his finger, but rather is immersed in the world of his haunting visions. Is the End of the Long Journey, the title of his exhibition, merely the painter’s imagination? Can it suggest something about the danger of the game we are playing? One of his paintings shows yellow crossroads flying in space, reminiscent of a boomerang. Is it going to return?
