Huge congratulations to the Stux Gallery for this impressive exhibit of the remarkable Spanish painter José Manuel Ciria, who has been shown far too rarely in the United States. One of the great artists of our time, he has been avidly collected by individuals and museums in Europe, Canada and Latin America for over 20 years.


In his investigations of the abstract image, he usually works in series, as he does here in the riveting “Rorschach Head Series,” consolidating different lines of thought based on the synthesis of his concepts. He combines a striking mixture of influences, which include the American Abstract Expressionists; Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning; and painters of the Spanish baroque, exemplified by Velá zquez and Zurbarán. Coexisting uncomfortably in his paintings, they lead to a disquieting tension, which pervades all his works. But it is Miró’s influence that is most notable, particularly in this show, though his dark and tortured vision here also calls to mind Francis Bacon.

“Time eyes - Rorschach Heads III Series,” by José Manuel Ciria.

The faces evoke the inkblots that the Swiss psychologist Rorschach used to measure the human tendency to project emotions, interpretations and meaning onto seemingly neutral stimuli. Using his customary palette of red, black, gray and white, prevalent among Spanish painters, Ciria offers one aspect after another of individuals in pain or under duress. Each has its own distinctive power, beginning with the startlingly fractured “Self-portrait,” where the eyes of the individual, wide and askew, stare out from the canvas, wild and frightened. One is also reminded of Goya, especially when looking at “Portrait,” where the subject’s mouth opens in a silent scream, or “Time eyes,” where an innocent-looking person—they appear to be more male than female—gazes quizzically into the distance, one eye violently crossed out with red lines. “Two-face” has a hole for a mouth, his face split in two. Disturbingly recognizable as human, though without anything but the basic features, these faces rank among the most powerful portraits being exhibited today, commenting not only on the severity of personal fears and anxieties but public ones as well.

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Through April 2, Stux Gallery, 530 W. 25th St., 212-352-1600.