Santos

To remember him through his drawings and paintings is to revisit the scenes of his life and his era.
A timeless vista that he painted in maskless disguise, and laugh about it.

There was a sting in the way he spoke, smiled and painted. Injections of awareness, discernment and the cynical joy of a playful child who would spill out jabs of well-meaning anger. Like solvents of intolernace.
Santos answered only to his own frankness and to that of others. A blunt sincerity that he adminestered with grit, unafraid of confrontation, and which inspired his unique imagination.

An ultimate romantic who navigated the vissicitudes of his time, discovering in art a potential ally.
And all the while turning his grey surroundings into a colourful playscape of discordant figures, elements and shapes; into a non-hierarchical amalgam of life.

His imagination flowed automatically, confidently into boldness. Through the lens of irony, he would dismantle and reconstruct the world with the authenticity of a practised observer, a tireless painter and draughtsman. He embraced his own awkwardness, and in doing so, he circumvented limitations, allowing things to emerge on their own.

And so, with this sharp perspective of the world around him, his quick approach and the sarcasm of a pro-active rebel, he would dissect alternatives, forging the way to a less-than-naïve utopia.
His surrealistic fantasy fashioned a sort of unruly kindness, leading to a slightly broader reality.

Extraordinary circumstances must come together for the emerge of extraordinary individuals who are prone to embody a representative agency that they are not fully aware of. Nor are they aware of the innate charisma that renders them delegates of their era.
Through a powerful body of work that reflects the personality of the milieu, encapsulated by that of the autor.
Santos Iñurrieta was one of those individuals.
An intense and compulsive painter. When painting was an act of primal liberation.

It is rare to find a painter who practices this so freely, without turning his back on his values, his shortcomings or his authenticity. To achieve this, one must be truly steadfast.
Hence, his work is simply the imprint of a world that could be improved and that it looks absurd to us when filtered through the acids of humour.

– AFCmintxo