The online collection and picture sale

Upon discovering the expressive possibilities of wood in 1957, after an initial period dedicated to figurative painting, Lucio Muñoz gave up working on canvas. A matterpainting artist par excellence, in Golgotha Muñoz presents a sufficiently recognisable image of the three crucified figures---Christ and the two thieves---described in the Gospels and transformed into icons by Western painting. The possibility of recognising the dramatic theme, in itself charged with emotional intensity, strengthens the Expressionist nature of the work, which incorporates irregular sheets of plywood, strips of wood, printed paper, splinters, nails, pieces of a thresher and mouldings with plant reliefs. Not many artists use matter as efficiently as Muñoz does, thanks to the complex craftwork---carving, gluing, burning, tearing and polychroming---that enables him to develop textures and colour games of surprisingly high quality.

Although this was not Lucio Muñoz's only incursion into religious art---suffice it to recall his mural in the interior of the basilica of Arantzazu (Gipuzkoa)---Golgotha should be interpreted as a generic image of mourners in the context of those created by other coeval Spanish artists. Both Millares and Saura depicted the human figure in their gestural painting and the latter turned on several occasions to the iconography of the crucifixion in his renderings of contemporary man. (Javier Viar)

Selected bibliography

• Castillo, Alberto del. "El Museo de Arte Contemporáneo en el de Bellas Artes de Bilbao", Goya : revista de arte, n° 101. 1971. pp. 329, 331.
• Bengoechea, Javier de. Catálogo de arte moderno y contemporáneo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya, 1980. p. 87. (Con el título Gólgota).
• Lucio Muñoz en Silos [Cat. exp.]. Burgos, Cámara Oficial de Comercio e Industria de Burgos, 2006. p. 21.
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 194.
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 194.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 194.
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. p. 193, n° cat. 137.
• Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. p. 193, n° cat. 137.
• Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 193.
• Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 193.
• La zarza ardiendo : entre el asombro y la emoción, 1955 - 1975 [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Edibesa, 2019. s.p., il.
• Pintura mural en la Comunidad de Madrid [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid, 2015. p. 540.