Antonio SAURA (1930-1998)

Antonio Saura Atarés (Huesca, Spain, 22 September 1930 - Cuenca, Spain, July 22, 1998) painter and writer, is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the TWENTIETH century.

Biography

Antonio Saura grew up during the Spanish Civil War in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona in the company of his parents, Antonio Saura Pacheco, State attorney and technical of the Ministry of Finance, and Fermina Atarés Torrent, pianist. He was the first born of four siblings, (Mary of the Pillar, Carlos Saura and Maria of the Angels). Due to a bony tuberculosis that kept him five years in bed from 1943, he began painting and writing in 1947.

Without academic education, he began his artistic career as a self-taught. He exhibited for the first time in 1950 in the library Books of Zaragoza and in 1952, in the library Buchholz, in Madrid, where he presents paintings, dreamlike and surreal. After your transfer to Paris from 1954 to 1956, they added in a first time the Surrealism, movement of the distance quickly. Started experimental work in a series titled Phenomena and Grattages. In 1954 he abandons abstraction. In 1956 he made his first paintings in black-and-white from the structure of the female body.

After his return to Spain, he teamed up with Manolo Millares, Pablo Serrano, Rafael Canogar, Luis Feito and other artists in the group Step (1957-1959). He exhibited for the first time in Paris in the Gallery Stadler in 1957. The following year, 1958, he participated, along with Antoni Tàpies and Eduardo Chillida in the Venice Biennale and in 1959 he was invited to the second edition of Documenta in Kassel (Germany). In 1958 he paints his first Portraits Imaginaries from which arises the series Brigitte Bardot. Between 1957 and 1960's performed several series of large paintings whose themes will recur throughout his work: Crucifixion, Ladies, Shrouds, Portraits, Portraits imaginary, Nude, Nude-Landscape, Cures, The Dog Goya and Crowds. From this time the colors of your painting will be limited, for a long time, the use of black, grey and land. Assumed trends of the european informalism and abstract expressionism american, will follow a personal trajectory that is rooted in the legacy of Velázquez, the painting Spanish baroque in general, and Goya.

In 1958, begins with a series of lithographs entitled Pintiquiniestras, which will be a fertile printed work that will develop during all his life. Was prolific her work as an illustrator in editions of quality of literary works, such as the don Quixote of Cervantes, the El Criticón de Baltasar Gracián, 1984 of Orwell, The adventures of Pinocchio by Collodi in the adapted version of Christine Nöstlinger, the Diaries of Kafka, or the Dreams and discourses Quevedo, among others.

At the end of the 1950s he exhibited with his compatriot Antoni Tàpies in a sample joint in the Documenta in 1959 in Munich. Both are the main exponents of informal art Spanish.

In 1960 he abandoned the exclusive use of the black-and-white in oil painting and starts several series of cumulative and repetitive that done on paper. From 1961 he has been exhibiting regularly in the Gallery Pierre Matisse in New York. In 1965 destroyed a hundred of his paintings. In 1967, he moved his residence permanently to Paris, he exhibits regularly at the Galerie Stadler and in the last year of his life at Galerie Lelong.

In 1968 he left painting until 1979, although it will continue to develop his graphic work as well as performing a large series of paintings on paper, and will be devoted to writing essays on art.

Antonio Saura was married in first marriage with Gunhild Madeleine Augot in 1954, with whom he had three daughters: Marina (1957), Ana (1959-1990) and Elena (1962-1983). His second wife was Mercedes Beldarraín Jimenez. His heirs are his daughter Marina and his widow, Mercedes.

The greater part of the work of Antonio Saura is figurative, and is characterized by the conflict with the form. His paintings are expressive and give the impression of being obsessive in his candid pictorial. It's a conflict with a world full of contradictions and lacking in security, in the prevailing pessimism.

In 1997, Antonio Saura was named Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Castilla-La Mancha, which has given its name to the building of the city of Cuenca, which houses the Faculty of Fine Arts. His acceptance speech was read by his daughter, actress Marina Saura.

Conflict over his legacy

In Cuenca, in the historical " Casa Zavala, is located the Foundation Antonio Saura, a nonprofit agency sponsored by the town Council and the Diputación of Cuenca, two brothers of the painter (the filmmaker Carlos Saura and writer Ángeles Saura) and two of its editors (Pierre Canova and Hans Meinke). The trustees appointed by Antonio Saura (Tomás Llorens Serra, Valeriano Bozal, Juan Manuel Bonet and his wife Mercedes Beldarraín,) as well as Marina Saura, daughter of the artist, withdrew from the project in 1998 out of respect for the will of the artist. This foundation may not reproduce texts or images of the work of the painter to the lack of ownership of the copyright. The Junta de Castilla La Mancha, who, during the years that it was led by Jose Bono and Jose Maria Barreda (both of the socialist party (PSOE) supported the activities of the Foundation and paid the various lawsuits against the heirs and the executor of the artist tried, he has retired from the board of trustees of the Foundation and announces the termination of its subsidies to¹

In April 2006, the executor of Antonio Saura (Olivier Weber-Caflisch) and their heirs (his wife Mercedes Beldarraín and his daughter Marina Saura, holders of the copyright of the artist) created the Fondation Archives Antonio Saura, Geneva. The foundation Archives Antonio Saura custody all the files of the painter (photographic, pictorial, and manuscripts), its library, its bank of images, as well as a representative collection of his work. Carries out the outreach work of the pictorial and literary works of the artist, published monographs, catalogs reasoned and other studies on their work, organizes exhibitions and provides certificates of authenticity²

Solo exhibitions (selection)

• 1963, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (Belgium); Stedelijk Museum, Eindhoven and Rotterdamsche Kunstkring, Rotterdam (Netherlands)
• 1964 Documenta III, Kassel, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
• 1966 Institute for Contemporary Art, London (Great Britain)
• 1974 M-11, Seville (Spain)
• 1977 Documenta IV, Kassel (Germany)
• 1979 Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, (Netherlands); Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf (Germany)
• 1980 Home of the Jewels of Madrid; Fundación Miró in Barcelona
• Box 1981 la Inmaculada, Zaragoza (Spain)
• 1985 Kumstant Wedding, Berlin (Germany)
• 1986 Neue Galerie (now in the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst), Aachen (Germany)
• 1989 Musée d'art et d'histoire, Geneva (Switzerland); Wiener Secession, Vienna, Austria; IVAM, Valencia
• 1990 National Museum Center of Art Reina Sofia (Madrid); Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, (Germany); Réfectoire des Jacobins Toulouse, (France)
• 1994 Museum für Moderne Kunst, Lugano (Switzerland)
• 1996 Museo de Dibujo Julio Gavín" Castillo de Larrés (Huesca)
• 2002 Musée d'art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg (France)
• 2003 National Museum, Kraków (Poland)
• 2012 Kunst Museum Bern, Bern (Switzerland)
• 2013 Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden (Germany)

Written

• Programio, author's edition, Madrid 1950-1951
• Space and gesture, 1959
• Ten notes, and ten engravings, Room Pelayo, Palma de Mallorca, 1974
• Against the Guernica / Libel, Ediciones Turner, Madrid 1981
• Contre Guernica / Pamphlet, Dominique Bedou Editeur, Paris, 1985
• Note book (memory of time), Library Yerba, Murcia 1992
• Belvédère Miró, L ' Echoppe, Paris 1993
• Mémoire du temps, Carnet de notes, La Différence, Paris, 1994
• Francis Bacon et la beauté obscène, Nouvelles Editions Séguier, Paris 1996
• La Question de l'art espagnol, L ' Echoppe, Paris 1996
• Le chien de Goya, L ' Echoppe, Paris 1996
• Discours de Cuenca, L ' Echoppe, Paris 1997
• Fixity, Essays, Gutenberg Galaxy / Circle of Readers, Barcelona, 1999 (ISBN 84-8109-221-5)
• Klee, point final, L ' Echoppe, Paris 1999
• Le miroir singulier / Bram van Velde, L ' Echoppe, Paris 1999
• Chronic. Articles, Gutenberg Galaxy / Circle of Readers, Barcelona, 2000 (ISBN 84-8109-289-4)
• Viewer. About artists (1958-1998), the Gutenberg Galaxy / Circle of Readers, Barcelona, 2001 (ISBN 84-8109-354-8)
• Writing as painting. About the experience of painting, (1950-1994) , the Gutenberg Galaxy / Circle of Readers, Barcelona 2004 (ISBN 84-8109-479-X)
• Erotica, Fondation Archives Antonio Saura and 5 Continents Editions, Geneva 2008 (with a text by Jacques Henric and eleven texts of Antonio Saura) (ISBN 978-88-7439-474-6)
• Contre Guernica / Pamphlet, Fondation Archives Antonio Saura and 5 Continents Editions, Geneva 2008 (ISBN 978-88-7439-475-3)
• Saura / Erotic, Taché editor, Barcelona 2007
• Antonio Saura par lui-même, Fondation Archives Antonio Saura and 5 Continents Editions, Geneva 2009 (ISBN 978-88-7439-510-1)
• Against the Guernica / Libel, Fondation Archives Antonio Saura, co-published with The Central and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Geneva, 2009 (with a preface by Félix de Azúa) (ISBN 978-84-936793-9-2)
• Antonio Saura by itself, Fondation Archives Antonio Saura, co-edited with Lunwerg Publishers, Geneva, 2009 (ISBN 978-2-940435-01-2)
• Antonio Saura über sich selbst, Fondation Archives Antonio Saura, co-published with HATJE CANTZ, Osterfildern 2012 (ISBN 978-3-7757-3410-3)

Illustrated books (selection)

• The New Pinocchio of Christine Nöstlinger, illustrated by Antonio Saura, with translation German to Spanish of Miguel Sáenz, Fondation Archives Antonio Saura, co-published with The Central and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Geneva, 2010 (ISBN 978-84-937511-4-2)
• Le nouveau Pinocchio Christine Nöstlinger, illustrated by Antonio Saura, with translation from German to French Ghyslaine Lagarde-Sailer, Fondation Archives Antonio Saura and 5 Continents Editions, Geneva, 2010 (ISBN 978-88-7439-541-5)
• Der neue Pinocchio Christine Nöstlinger, illustrated by Antonio Saura, Fondation Archives Antonio Saura and HATJE CANTZ (ISBN 978-3-7757-2709-9)
• The New Pinocchio of Christine Nöstlinger, illustrated by Antonio Saura, with German to English translation from Anthea Bell, Fondation Archives Antonio Saura and 5 Continents Editions, Geneva, 2010 (ISBN 978-88-7439-570-5)
• Antonio Saura über sich selbst Antonio Saura, illustrated by Antonio Saura, with German translation, by Bernard Dieterle, co-publication of Fondation Archives Antonio Saura and HATJE CANTZ, Geneva/Ostfildern 2012 (ISBN 978-3-7757-3410-3)
• Die Mauer Bert Papenfuss and Antonio Saura, illustrated by Antonio Saura, co-HATJE CANTZ and the Fondation Archives Antonio Saura, Ostfildern/Geneva 2012 (ISBN 978-3-7757-3409-7)
• Antonio Saura: Die Retrospektive , with texts by Natalia Barn, Alexander Klar, Olivier Weber-Caflisch, Matthias Frehner, Didier Semin, Bernard Dieterle and Cäsar Menz, illustrated by Antonio Saura, co-published by Kunst Museum Bern, Museum Wiesbaden, HATJE CANTZ and the Fondation Archives Antonio Saura, Ostfildern 2012 (ISBN 978-3-7757-3369-4)

Awards (selection)

• 1960 Prize, A Guggenheim, New York (United States)
• 1979 Prize of the first biennial european graphics (Ersten Europäischen Grafikbiennale), Heidelberg (Germany)
• 1982 Gold Medal to Fine Arts in Spain
• 1990 he Is named Officier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Paris
• 1994 Prize Aragon to the Arts, Zaragoza
• 1995 Great prize of the city of Paris (France)