Salustiano - Semana Santa Sevilla 2024 - 2020s

Holy Week Seville 2024

The value of this 2024 poster lies not only in its originality but also in the controversy that arose at a national level and even internationally, due to the image being so explicit and sensual of Christ. A couple of examples in newspapers:

https://www.ilmessaggero.it/vaticano/cristo_gay_settimana_santa_siviglia_poster_polemiche_vaticano_papa_francesco_omosessualita_chiesa-7901727.html

https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2024/02/01/polemica-en-espana-el-cartel-de-semana-santa-en-sevilla-incendia-las-redes-orix

After the controversy raised throughout Spain in 2024 by this poster, which presents and announces the Seville Holy Week 2024, its author Salustiano said that for the poster he was inspired by the death of his brother at age 12, by the serenity his face conveyed when he went to say goodbye to him. His son Horacio has served as a model. Following his artistic line, Salustiano shows us his personal reminiscence of the sublimest Renaissance, in which the flat monochrome background shines through, a bold red, the so‑called “Salustiano red.” His son Horacio has acted as a model to execute this work. In the author’s words, “My Christ appears young and beautiful. Young, as a metaphor for purity: thus he has appeared to the Virgin Mary in the history of art, almost like a teenager. And beautiful because, I refer to Plato, beauty and goodness are the same thing.”

Within the poster there are two elements very representative of Seville’s Holy Week: the cloth of the Expiration Christ of the Brotherhood of the Cachorro and the kingly powers of the Love Christ. “I would have loved to include in the poster a tribute to all of the city’s Brotherhoods, but I could only evoke two of them,” the painter explains.

About the artist:
Among the numerous recognitions he has received, notable are the Focus-Abengoa Painting Prize and the National Prize of Plastic Arts of the Rafael Botí Foundation.
Salustiano currently works with galleries in New York, Miami, Munich, Paris, Florence, Düsseldorf, Palm Beach, the Netherlands, Mexico City, Santiago de Chile, Maryland, Seoul, Sun Valley (Idaho), Berlin, Hamburg, Tel Aviv or Nuremberg.

Since 1994, Salustiano has exhibited his works in various cities across Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, South Korea, Denmark, the United States, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey.
“Beautiful, disturbing, and deep. That’s how American journalist Sandra Lodos defines the work of this Spaniard who circulates in galleries and fairs around the world, giving a new twist to the portrait tradition with red images where he fuses Renaissance rigor and mathematical perfection.”