Antonio Saura — In the Rhythm of Gesture and Imagination
Prints form the period 1977-1997 made at the Atelier Clot, Bramsen & Georges, Paris.
Antonio Saura (1930-1998) was a self-taught painter, who started to paint during long lasting illness in 1947. At first he was interested in surrealism. In the years 1953-1955 the artist lived in Paris, where he met, beside the circle of surrealists, Simon Hantai, a painter and art critic, and Michel Tapié, one of the main promoters of informel art. Having returned to Spain, he abandoned surrealism and leaned towards the aesthetics of French other art and American abstractive expressionism. In 1957 he founded the El Paso artistic formation. At the same time he defined his own creative way based on the assumptions of aesthetics of informel abstraction. His programme consisted in expressive ecstatic art, expressing subconscious drives, exposing the beauty hidden in revulsion arousing phenomena. Gradually he has limited the colour spectrum to black, white, grey and brown. He paints portraits and views of crowds. He casually massacres subsequent versions of figures painted by himself, creating them only in order to carry out acts of destruction. He left a few famous cycles: Imaginary Portraits (imaginary portraits of Philip II after Velázquez, and Dora Maar after Picasso), and Goya’s Dog. He cultivated also photography and stage design, collaborating with his brother, director Carlos Saura.
