This work of art was made by a famous artist from Spain called Francisco Motto. It represents a modest area of Abu-Dhabi. The author was born in Madrid in 1945, lived in Monzón until he was 29 years old. Motto practices a type of painting that approaches the hyperrealism of current frame, personal composition, linear perspective and balanced colour and composition full of difficulties. The most typical landscape that predominates in his paintings are urban spaces and interiors.

The chosen city is on the north-eastern part of the Persian Gulf in the Arabian Peninsula. The climate is so hot, because of the desert, as well as we can observe blue skies throughout the year. Abu Dhabi´s rapid development and urbanization, coupled with the relatively high average income of its population, has transformed the city into a large and advanced metropolis. The architecture is lofty because of big gardens, mosques, enormous business buildings…

It could be said that the streets are laid out in a grid plan. The buildings in the picture could be understood as a residential periphery which were added in the second half of the XX century and it is formed by groups of compact constructions. This neighbourhood could be located in the suburban area of the city.

The image portrays the city of Abu-Dhabi with a great amount of details. It is a modest street in the suburbs of the city dedicated to quotidian activities like shopping, with cars driving across a big avenue. Both sides of the picture show us everyday nature far from luxury and opulence well-known in Abu-Dhabi. The bottom of the picture shows us high skyscrapers made of opulent materials and in the foreground we can see some buildings with a different morphology. On the right side there are various blocks of flats with different shapes and light colors, most of them with balconies.

There is a typical palm tree in the middle of the pavement which does not seem to match with the rest of landscape. That is the reason of the hot dessert climate with cool seasons from November to March, on average, January is the coolest month in the year, while August is the hottest.

The left part of the picture is divided in two sides, one a road with cars stuck in traffic, allowing access to the wealthy area visible at the back of the picture. The second one is a park line separating again the hustle and bustle of the quiet community. The strong point of the picture is the enormous puddle which capture all our attention due to the fact that the artist allows us to see better chromatic variety than the real image.

It is curious to point out that the image shows the less known part of Abu-Dhabi nothing to do with spectacular malls, cars and lavishness of the city, taking in count that Abu Dhabi´s government is looking to expand revenue from oil and gas production to tourism and other sorts of things which would attract different types of people.

Alejandra Gutiérrez Rodríguez

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