Sakura
EUGENIO MONTORO AYBAR
2025
Mixed meida on board
Framed
Dimensions without frame
Dimensions with frame 30 x 24,5 cm
Concept of the painting
The artwork belongs to the first conceptual act of Eugenio Montoro Aybar's authorial project—"The Façade, Encapsulated Beauty, and the Mask"—dedicated to the fragility of traditional Eastern art and the idealized female form.
The focal point of the composition is a circular medallion (tondo) featuring an exquisite portrait of a geisha named Shinju (meaning "pearl" in Japanese). Her porcelain-toned face, defined by an expressive gaze, vibrant crimson lips, and a high traditional coiffure adorned with an ornate comb and hairpins, is rendered with meticulous graphic virtuosity. A brilliant scarlet kimono patterned with floral motifs contrasts boldly against the subdued, silver-gray backdrop of the medallion, which is edged with scallops reminiscent of a vintage postage stamp or a precious cameo.
The artist's original haiku serves as the poetic leitmotif of the piece:
White treasure,
Shinju's countenance gleams,
a pearl in bloom.
The portrait is set against a collage of delicate paper and a silk substrate bearing classical Japanese motifs: blossoming boughs, decorative chrysanthemums, and cranes. The entire surface is encapsulated beneath a thick layer of crystal-clear epoxy resin. Within the painter's visual lexicon, this resin serves as a core metaphor: it preserves pristine elegance across time, turning the heroine into a captive of her own aesthetic immobility and an unattainable ideal. The piece is completed by a deep, custom shadow-box frame, whose rich turquoise-blue tint highlights the clarity and refined radiance of the portrait.

