Soledad I [Solitude I]

Raúl Lara Tórrez was a member of a well-known family of contemporary Bolivian artists. Trained in Oruro and Buenos Aires, he settled in Jujuy, northern Argentina, in the late 1960s with two of his siblings, also fellow artists. The family returned to Bolivia after Lara’s brothers were threatened by the military dictatorship that took over Argentina in 1976, and one of them was kidnapped and disappeared. Soledad I, painted around the time of these tragic events, was part of a series of works in which Lara reflected on his experiences of urban life in Buenos Aires, representing people traveling in buses or waiting for them in the street. Here, he portrays a well-dressed man of African descent, a recurrent subject in his work, who stands by the side of the road, facing the viewer. Although his dark glasses hide the direction of his gaze, the reflection on their surface reveals that he is observing a scene taking place beyond the painting’s frame. The bowed pose of the anonymous figure seated next to him conveys a similar desire for willful disconnection, yet they both share an atmosphere of uncanny isolation and secrecy.