Matte poster
This iberian bull poster is a matte print ready to frame: a black bull facing forward, in an open black jacket with a thin chain at his neck, holding your gaze against a plain background. This is Fernando, a character from my Animal Kinhood series.
Bos taurus
Five hundred years of dehesa fit inside me. Things well made last longer than the people who made them.
Dehesas of the Iberian Peninsula: expanses of holm oak and cork oak with natural pasture in Extremadura, Salamanca, Andalusia and the Portuguese Alentejo. Density of 0.2 to 0.5 head per hectare.
Fernando inherited the forge the day his grandfather's heart stopped on his feet, next to the anvil, hammer still in hand. He was fifteen. Since then he makes pieces to outlast the hands that made them, and that quiet idea is what holds up the whole portrait. The thin chain around his neck he forged himself, link by link, one Sunday with no orders in: a four-metre gate built to the smallest scale he knew how.
I created him facing forward with a clean background: on a wall it asks for nothing around it. The matte finish doesn't glare, so it holds up well in a hallway, an entryway, or facing a desk. It's a portrait with a calm presence, the kind that settles a wall instead of cluttering it. I sign it myself, Yago Partal, and if you're left wanting to know who this bull is, his whole story is in his biography.
