La feria de las flores, 2023

Cristina de Middel   Famous Artists

La feria de las flores (The Flower Fair) is an original lithograph of 2023 by Cristina de Middel, published by Taller del Prado and printed on 300 g Conqueror Connoisseur 100% cotton paper in an edition of 75 copies. The image, translated into lithography from a photograph, shows a dense carpet of red and coral poppy-like flowers on green stems spreading across the foreground and narrowing as it climbs toward the centre, like a river or a path of blossoms advancing into a dark, shadowy wood. The contrast between the brightly lit flowers and the almost black background gives the scene a theatrical, slightly unreal quality, as if the meadow were a stage or an apparition, in keeping with an artist whose work constantly blurs the boundary between document and fiction. Lithography lends the image a soft, matt texture and a material presence on the paper that set it apart from a photographic print. Cristina de Middel (Alicante, 1975) achieved international recognition with The Afronauts (2012), received Spain's Premio Nacional de Fotografía in 2017 and is a member of Magnum Photos; her collaborations with Taller del Prado have brought her imagery into original printmaking. The impression is numbered at lower left and hand-signed in pencil at lower right.