The Art Newspaper

A New York artist in the Spanish tradition

Ena Swansea is painting a massive mural, known as a Goyesque, on the floor of a bullfighting arena in Arles

By Anthony Haden-Guest. Web only
Published online: 01 September 2010

A rendering of Swansea's designs for the arena at Arles

Beginning on 10 September, New York artist Ena Swansea, along with a dozen assistants, will begin making a “Goyesque”—a painting on the sand that covers the whole inner space of the Roman arena in Arles, France, named after the Spanish master who famously depicted the thrills of the bullfight. “We will be working under extreme pressure,” Swansea says, who is starting work on the massive mural at 10pm that Friday night. “We have to be finished by Saturday afternoon in time for the bullfight.”

The practice of fighting over a painted floor is a tradition in Spain, as in Arles, where it died out and was revived a few years ago. Swansea became aware of it when she saw a photograph of a revival piece, based on a sketch by the designer Christian Lacroix, which inspired the large-scale oil painting “Bull” in 2008, shown at her Zurich dealer Arndt & Partner. Working on canvas was not enough it seems, so she contacted the proprietor of the arena, et voilà!

The artist says she will be working in liquid pigment. “You can’t really use acrylic paint because the smell disturbs the animals,” she says. “The bulls cost thousands of dollars each. So if you foul up a whole bullfight it’s really a big mistake.” But Swansea, a powerful and meticulous artist, is confident she can deliver. “It is going to be visually unlike anything you have ever seen,” she says, “because seven bulls are going to die on my painting.”

What is the subject of the painting? “Bulls.” And how does Swansea feel about bullfighting? “I thought it was a quaint historical thing. But now I have spent the last year studying it and going to bullfights, so I’m coming from a different place. My feeling is expressed in the text that is part of the design.” This text, as translated from the Spanish, reads: “Yes it is. No it isn’t.” “It’s ambiguous,” Ena Swansea agrees. “You can’t really say that bullfighting is good or bad.”

Artist Ena Swansea testing the paint colour at the arena