The Basque Country (pdf, 4,3Mb) - Kultura Saila - Euskadi.net

48
A number of Basque artists are
represented in the Museum of Fine Arts
in Bilbao.
Monument to Arriaga de Francisco
Durrio at the Museum entrance.
Self-portrait. Ignacio Zuloaga.
Painting by José Luis Zumeta.
New Basque sculpture is pursuing paths different from the powerful
mark left by the founders and their contemporaries. Currently,
installations, along with sculpture in a strict sense, are the dominant
practice, and artists are exploring the use of different resources
simultaneously, moving beyond the limits of individual disciplines.
The best-known among this group are Cristina Iglesias, who
works with volumes inspired by architecture; Txomin Badiola, who
uses all types of expressive resources and installations; and Esther
Ferrer, who works from a perspective of sound sculpture with the
Parisian ZAJ group. Also worth mentioning are Prudencio Irazabal,
Koldobika Jauregi, Pello Irazu, Javier Pérez and Navarrese artists
José Ramón Anda and Ángel Garraza.
7.1.2. Painting
Although there are examples of earlier Basque painters, Basque
painting per se was late in coming. At the beginning of the twentieth
century a generation of painters emerged that participated
intensely in the different European avant-garde trends.
Darío de Regoyos (1857-1913), originally from Asturias, was
very influential with his pictorial expressionism, which eventually
gave way to a more celebratory pointillist impressionism.
With its group exhibits, the Association of Basque Artists
(1910-35) marked a turning point and facilitated the emergence
of some quality vanguard artists.
Adolfo Guiard was an impressionist moderated by his drawing and, as
an admirer of his friend Degas, he also approached symbolism. A good
part of his work decorates the historic private club, Sociedad Bilbaína.
Ignacio Zuloaga (Eibar, 1870-Madrid, 1945) was the most
internationally known Basque painter. His work has not
been ascribed to any particular artistic style of the period,
but following his phase of dark pessimism, he incorporated
elements characteristic of nineteenth-century painting and
of the impressionists, and would later establish an influential
academicist approach marked by expressive, dramatic colour.
Aurelio Arteta (Bilbao, 1879-Mexico City, 1940). He painted with
great precision numerous sequences of Basque society, both rural
and urban. Influenced by very distinct trends (impressionism,
postimpressionism, symbolism, epic and social realism...),
he generated his own realist style. His painting is robust and
austere, with tones that tend to be on the dark side, and stylised,
sculptural figures. When the Spanish Civil War broke out he went
into exile in Mexico, where he was killed in a tramway accident.
The Araba-born Gustavo de Maeztu (1887-1947) cultivated
thematic description, with a strong symbolic load, rotund
figures and exotic, fantasy-laden colours. The work of Antonio de
Guezala (1889-1956), with its geometric and futuristic elements,
set him aparts from the rest of his generation.
Surrealist painter Nicolás de Lekuona (1913-1937) used a wide range of
expressive forms with great imagination (architectural representations,
drawings, paintings, posters, photographs and photomontage).
Other renowned painters included the fauvist Francisco Iturrino,
whose creations extolled the body, Ricardo Baroja, Juan de Aranoa,
Fernando de Amárica, Carlos Sáenz de Tejada the brothers Ramón
and Valentín de Zubiaurre, and the Arrue brothers.
The pictorial work of the artists who survived the Spanish Civil War
of 1936-1939 continued, although shrouded in a certain silence
(José M. Ucelay, Dionisio Blanco...). Marked by opposition to the
Franco regime, efforts were made to create a specifically Basque art,
about which Oteiza theorized. However, a series of encounters on
contemporary art brought figures of world-wide importance (Serra,
Cage...) to Pamplona-Iruña in 1972. The various trends clashed
and at that point all styles and intentions became possible.
The most outstanding artists in this period include:
Rafael Ruiz Balerdi (Donostia, 1934-Altea, 1992) was part of the
Gaur group and a prolific painter of colour: He experienced the
grand bohemian ambience of Paris in the middle of the century,
opting for an abstract art of great density and beauty.
José Luis Zumeta (Usurbil, 1939) was also part of the group, his
transvanguard paintings and murals full of fantasy and colour.
Agustin Ibarrola (Bilbao, 1930) was part of the groups Equipo 57
and Estampa japonesa. Both painter and sculptor, he has worked
with many techniques. In the 1960s he reflected the social rebellion
of the times in murals, paintings and lithography, using anonymous
figures or crowd scenes, with active lines that are schematic and
didacticist. In the 1980s he began looking into the relationship
existing between the surroundings and society, which would lead
him to create such works as the Painted Forest of Oma.
The generation born in the 1930s and 1940s brings us magnificent
artists of every style imaginable. Alongside José Antonio Sistiaga,
an experimental filmmaker, and Vicente Amestoy (1946-2001),
who works in surrealistic figuration, are Iñaki García Ergüín,
Rafael Ortiz Alfau, Carmelo Ortiz de Elguea, Mari Puri Herrero,
Menchu Gal, Gabriel Ramos Uranga, and many others.
Well-established artists today include such names as Jesús Mari
Lazkano, Darío Urzay, Daniel Tamayo and Alfonso Gortázar. The
influence of the School of Fine Arts has been notable. Some of the
better-known names from Navarre include Xabier Morrás, Pedro
Salaberri, Xabier Idoate, Juanjo Azkerreta and Isabel Bakedano.