In the midst of coronavirus lockdown, I am watching the historic 1970 World Cup semi-final Germany-Italy. The Secolo match that Italy won 4-3 with Franz Beckenbauer's arm in a sling. I remember that, on June 17, I paid little attention to the exciting match because I was distracted by other matters. Specifically, I was in the middle of a secret getaway, with Anna Bohigas, to Ricardo Bofill's Kafka Castle, which had just opened. Confident that the absolutely white interior would be an ideal set, I took my Pentax with me, with the intention of immortalizing that weekend. Going through my archives, I found the contact sheets from those sessions, contacts that caused me an intense Proustian emotion. After half a century, Anna's beauty startles me so much that I cannot resist the temptation of painting her again, even if it was based on memory and some contact sheets.

O.T.B. April 2020