I have been searching for a subjective and intimate message among different shapes and images, so that the spectators create their own idea,” states the Spanish artist Javier Iturbe, whose paintings are on view at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street , from June 1 through 21. (Reception: Thursday, June 7, from 6 to 8 PM.)
 As his statement indicates Iturbe's method is deeply intuitive. Reversing how most other painters proceed, he apparently begins with abstract forms that evolve into complex figurative compositions, as he discerns recognizable subject matter among the areas of line and color that he lays down on the canvas.
 Although self-taught, Iturbe cannot be classified as an “outsider,” since he was trained in a related field, architecture, and his paintings are highly sophisticated, both in overall structure and refinement of technique. Iturbe has also mastered anatomy to the point where each of his figures is convincingly detailed and possessed of its own unique characteristics. However, due to his skillful color modulation and the fluidity of his forms, each element in the composition melds harmoniously into an essentially abstract whole.
 At first glance, seen from a distance, his paintings could almost appear nonobjective: configurations of shard-like shapes given overall unity by a contemporary variant on the fractured planes of cubism. Then the figurative elements come into focus and the painting takes on new meaning, the energetic flow of figures and symbols suddenly seeming reminiscent of
Baroque and Rococo art.
 The plasticity of his forms can also call to mind El Greco, as though Iturbe has looked long and hard at the master's paintings in The Prado and discovered how to adopt some of their qualities to a more contemporary form of expression without sacrificing his own originality.  He manages this synthesis especially well in the complex composition entitled “Like Ulysses did, we have always to look for new adventures.” This is an especially intricate canvas, in which the forms,  figures, and such details as old-fashioned sailing ships, winding bodies of water, and a majestic landscape suggest Ulysses'  long and arduous journey, described by Homer in the Odyssey, home to the island of Ithaca , after the fall of Troy . However, it can also be interpreted as a reminder of the artist to himself to keep soldiering on and discovering new methods and subjects for his art. Ulysses, after all, was renowned for his ingenuity and his daring, qualities which Iturbe has already cultivated in his painting.
 By contrast a more carefree mood comes across in oil on canvas by Iturbe called “Carnival in Venice ,” where the intermingled figures, objects, and forms take on a more abstract aspect, clustered on an aqueous green background. And while a more somber atmosphere dominates the large canvas called “Life squeezes ourselves and...also chokes,” it is one of Iturbe's most powerful compositions in formal terms, with its deep blue hues and angular geometric forms contained within a long horizontal format.
 Aphoristic titles, some more explicable than others, add a literary (but not too literal) dimension to the work. However, it is finally his ability to invest symbolic subject matter with a visual impact to match its mystery that makes Javier Iturbe an artist to be reckoned with.