Exponents
of the Bestiary Hall

Real, wilful, delusional, subjective, individual, disturbing, a bestiary like this needed a personality like Jose Esteban’s. What a pity his animus, resembling that of Azorin! Yet, the BESTIARIUS STEBANENSIS have an entity following Ianus and Ionic styles. On the one side, the writings; on the other, the stimulus to his friend Andres Alcantara to finish the artwork with his drawings: front and back of one event, top and underside of the same clear mirror. Two-column forms to sustain the structure of the monument.

Alcantara, a clear-headed and reliable sculptor, an expert in carving the stone, construed Esteban’s fantasies using unique shapes in paintbrush drawings, with India ink on rice paper. His avant-garde language is empty to give rise to the order established amidst the chaos; the beam of lines warp going on their way cleanly. A smile from the time-related in the beautiful shapes ink rows tidily in the white tights that the paper shows with fearful appeal and mischief, just like a tune from Astor Piazzola or a decima from El Indio Nabori.

Tomas Paredes
Snatch of the preface to BESTIARIUS STEBANENSIS
Back cover
Madrid (Spain), 2018-2019.