From his first exhibitions, in the midst of the neo-Expressionist wave at the beginning of the ’80s, José María Sicilia’s work has been characterized by a pronounced touch of sensuality. Nature, too, has played an important role in his work; in his first solo exhibition in Spain, at the legendary Galería Fernando Vijande in 1983–84, he included a great many landscapes, some of them alpine scenes. If one attempts an overview of his work, it is clear that sensuality and beauty, and their relationship to nature, are among the issues that have interested him most deeply.

In 1993, Sicilia produced “