Labels (Etiquetas), 1956.
This work began the search for colour but in a very specific way. The artist constructed the surface of the collage from coloured paper cut in strips and irregular pieces, with ochre tones on the right hand side and blue on the left. The centre was reserved for labels from containers of consumer goods. Esteban introduced the logos from products such as Campbell’s soup, Kraft parmesan cheese, Del Monte tinned foods, etc. even newspaper advertisements over Japanese paper was used as medium for the collage. Once the containers were cut out, he reduced them to a visual formula and made them stand out on a plain medium. Hence, the labels behave as a colour mass and not as icons.