Antonio Saura

ANTONIO SAURA (Huesca, 1930 - Cuenca, 1998).
Untitled. 1960.
Collage and mixed media on cardboard.
Signed in the central figure.
Measurements: 50 x 70 cm; 70 x 90 cm (frame).
Self-taught, he began to paint and write in Madrid in 1947. Three years later he celebrates his first individual exhibition in the bookstore Libros de Zaragoza. In 1952 he holds his first exhibition in Madrid, in the Buchholz bookstore, and that same year he travels for the first time to Paris, where he will participate in the activities of the surrealist group. He organized his first exhibition in the French capital in 1957, at the Stadler gallery, the same year he founded the El Paso group. In 1960 he receives the Guggenheim Prize in New York, and in 1963 he has his first retrospectives at the Stedelijk Museum in Eindhoven, the Rotterdamsche Kunstring and in the museums of Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro (works on paper). During his career Saura's retrospective exhibitions are repeated, both in Spain and in Europe and America. In 1966 he participates in the Biennial of Engraving "Bianco e Nero" of Lugano, obtaining the Grand Prize. The following year he settled in Paris, and in 1968 he abandoned oil painting to devote himself exclusively to works on paper. In 1979 he won a prize at the First Biennial of engraving in Heidelberg, in 1981 he was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France, and the following year he was awarded the Gold Medal of Fine Arts. He has exhibited all over the world, and is represented in the most important contemporary art museums, both nationally and internationally, including the Neue Nationalgalierie in Berlin, the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Tate Gallery in London. In this piece the artist works with the collage technique. Against a black background, three vaguely anthropomorphic figures stand out, drawn with his characteristic spontaneous and dynamic stroke.