Félix de la Concha

In Spain the Real Academia Española de la Lengua (Royal Spanish Academy), is the institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. Last year José María Merino, as a newly elected member, was invited to give a speech at the induction ceremony as part of the process of becoming an “academic”. His address, entitled “Ficción de verdad” (Fiction of Truth), was inspired by Las tres gracias de Altagracia (as it is entitled in Spanish) and the story behind its creation.

It goes without saying that I was honored to have my painting presented to this venerable institution. The speech, which can be downloaded from the R.A.E. website, is unfortunately only available in Spanish

The first facet of this object is the original painting. The following three facets are deformations of the original that José María asked me to do, in order to illustrate his discourse.