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Antón Lamazares

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Antón Lamazares(born 1954) is a Spanish painter, who is, along with José María Sicilia,Miquel Barcelóand Víctor Mira, a member of the "generación de los 80". Working elaborate surfaces of wood and cardboard with varnish and other materials, he has created a very personal medium and artistic language. From an initially playfulexpressionism,his style has developed towardabstract expressionismand straightforwardabstraction,and, more recently, a sort ofminimalismin which an intimate dialogue between soul and memory, the spiritual and the sensual,poetryand dream-life can take place. His works have been exhibited throughout the world and are held by numerous important institutions, including theNational Museum Reina Sofía,the Galician Centre for Contemporary Art, the Madrid Museum of Contemporary Art and the Marugame Hirai Museum ofJapan,as well as by many private collectors and foundations.

Lamazares in Berlin, 2005

Biography[edit]

Early years: painting and poetry[edit]

(Galicia, 1954–1977)

Pieces from the seriesSueño e coloraoandTitania e Brao

Lamazares was born on 2 January 1954 in Maceira, a village inLalín(Pontevedra,Spain), whose rural environment left a deep impact on his imagery and creative process. Much of his early schooling (1963–1969) took place at the Franciscan seminary of Herbón where he devoted himself to the study of literature, mostly Latin and Greek classics. In the late 1960s he began writing poetry and developed friendships with the writerÁlvaro Cunqueiroand the painters Laxeiro and Manuel Pesqueira, who would become formative influences. As his creative vocation began to shift from poetry toward painting, he undertook lengthy travels throughout Europe (1972) to study in person work by the masters he revered, including,Paul Klee,RembrandtandJoan Miró,to whom would be addedAntoni Tàpies,Manuel Millares,Alberto GiacomettiandFrancis Bacon,as well asMedieval artand theArt of Oceania.

At the conclusion of his travels he stayed briefly inBarcelona,where he took a job as a construction worker, studying the works in its museums, particularly the collections ofRomanesque artat the Marés Museum and theNational Art Museum of Cataloniain his free time. InMadrid,where he next alighted, he resumed contact with his maestro, Laxeiro, and got to know the poetCarlos Oroza,whose friendship would remain essential for him: the dialogue between painting and poetry is a constant in all of his work.

In 1973, at the age of only 19, Lamazares had already begun exhibiting his paintings in group and solo shows. In 1975 he began his compulsory military service in the Navy, inFerrol.On September 27 of that year he learned the startling news of the final executions by the Franco regime, following the Burgos Trial; one of the executed culprits was his friend Humberto Baena, a 24-year-old from Pontevedra. The news sank Lamazares into a deep depression, resulting in a period of psychiatric institutionalization. It was during this time that he would write his collection of poems,Adibal.

"Throughout the 20th century painters have wanted to express the most hidden and mysterious places of the human being. But when they did so, it has always been on a white canvas, as if they had the ability to express themselves over the immaculate territory of nothingness. For me a painter isn't someone who demonstrates his power over a surface, but one who succeeds in establishing a relationship of conflict and of respect with the world that surrounds him. When I take up a piece of cardboard or wood and paint on it, I do so because I believe that I am thereby calling to mind the importance of a sacred dimension."

— Lamazares,Enter.arte,2007

From expressionism andArte Poveratobifacialpainting[edit]

(Madrid-New York, 1978–1989)

Mauro,fromGracias vagabundas,in the National Gallery of Jordan

In 1978 Lamazares moved to Madrid, where he formed a close friendship with the painter Alfonso Fraile, as well as with the gallerist Juana Mordó,[1]the art critic and poet Santiago Amón and the neurologist Alberto Portera, the link to a large group of artists –writers, filmmakers, musicians and painters– who would meet on weekends at his country house in Mataborricos, where Lamazares would mount an open-air exhibition of his work in 1979. That same year he would meet Joan Miró, and travel throughProvenceto acquaint himself with the landscape of Van Gogh,Picasso,CézanneorMatisse.

The 1980s were a time of intense creative activity and broad diffusion of his work: by the age of 30, Lamazares had already carved out a space in the panorama of Spanish as well as international art. His paintings of the time show playful and dreamlike figures depicted in an expressionistic mode, intensely chromatic and powerfully original. He exhibited at Juana Mordó's gallery in Madrid, at Elisabeth Frank's in Belgium and at the Sala Gaspar in Barcelona.[2]Soon he moved toNew York City,where he would remain for two years on aFulbright Scholarship.There, his painting, which he exhibited at the Bruno Fachetti Gallery,[3]developed in a direction at once purer and more material. For a period he divided his time between New York andSalamanca.In 1988 he traveled throughAnatolia–visiting the temple ofDidymaas a tribute toHölderlin'sHyperion– andIstanbul,where he was deeply impressed by theByzantine churches.Imagery reflecting his experience, articulated by the arrangement of wood in the paintings, can be seen in the work exhibited at Galería Miguel Marcos.[4]In 1990 he began preparing a new series of works, designed to be looked at from both sides, which he callsbifrontes (bifacials).

"The myth proposed and given form by Antón Lamazares in the equidistance of the twilight isn't about crossing the border of another world, but about identifying and revealing a profound sense of infinity of the one here. As the true artist he is, Lamazares becomes a witness to the dimension of the infinite. Only the great artists have been able to evoke that dimension and transform it into myth."

— Santiago Amón,La pintura de Lamazares y la luz crepuscular,1986

Sculptural painting and large formats[edit]

(Paris-Madrid, 1990–2003)

Antón Lamazares in his studio

In 1990 and 1991, Lamazares came toParison a stipend from the Cité des Arts, and in 1991 he opened a large studio in Madrid, where he began to work on the seriesGracias vagabundas (Wandering Graces)andDesazón de vagabundos (The Anxiety of Vagabonds).[5]In 1993 he met Tàpies and published an extensive interview with him subsequent to Tàpies having been awarded theGolden Lionat theVenice Biennale.Invited by the Galician Centre for Contemporary Art, he spent May to November 1996 in Galicia painting the seriesGracias do lugar: Eidos de Rosalía, Eidos de Bama (The place's charm: Rosalía's fields, Bama’s fields).[6]From June to November 1997 he worked outdoors in Santa Baia de Matalobos onBés de Santa Baia.That same year he became acquainted with the sculptorJorge Oteiza,a lengthy conversation with whom is filmed by Chus Gutiérrez. In 1998, in Madrid, he painted the seriesTitania e Brao,a tribute to the Castilian summer, and subsequentlyPol en Adelán.[7]

During this time, he also created numerousgraphic works,including a suite ofetchingsto accompany five texts by Gustavo Martín Garzo in the artist's bookEl Canto de la Cabeza(Galería Sen, Madrid) and thelithographsthat accompanyItinerariumbyEgeria(Raiña Lupa, Paris), a work that was nominated as book of the year byLe Monde Diplomatique.In 2001 he mounted a grand-scale exhibition at the Seaport ofA Coruña,under the titleUn saco de pan duro (A Bag of Hard Bread).[8]

His work was chosen for international promotion, along with that of other Spanish artists such asAntonio Saura,Martín Chirino,Joan Hernández Pijuan, Millares,Pablo Serrano,Oteiza and Tàpies by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under its program Spanish Art for the Outside World. Around this time Lamazares traveled toFlorenceandAssisito examine works ofRenaissance artas well as to gain familiarity with the milieu ofSaint Francis,to whom he would dedicate his new series,Follente Bemil.[9]

"His work has often been compared with that of Jean Dubuffet, or Gaston Chaissac and his idea of the brut, the spontaneous, but in truth, he has always been in search of that humble beauty which is constantly threatened by the strong winds of reality and of conformity."

— Gustavo Martín Garzo,Jonás y la calabacera,2000

From abstraction to poetic minimalism[edit]

(Berlin, since 2004)

Exhibition ofDomus Omniain Santiago de Compostela

In 2004, Lamazares moved to Berlin, where he has been living ever since. Following the death of his father he began the seriesE fai frío no lume (It’s Cold in the Fire).He was the subject of large exhibitions inSloveniaand in the Museum (Church) Kiscelli inBudapest(Hungary).[10]

Exhibition by Lamazares in New York, 2009

Subsequently he devoted himself to the seriesDomus Omnia,[11]and collaborated in the creation of two further artist's books by Oroza:Deseo sin trámite(Aguatinta,Vigo) with aserigraphandUn sentimiento ingrávido recorre el ambiente(Raiña Lupa, Paris) to which he contributed five lithographs.[12]

In 2008 he exhibitedHorizonte sin dueño (Unowned Horizon)in the National Gallery ofJordan(Amman) and an anthology of his graphic work in theCervantes InstituteofDamascus(Syria), where the poet Taher Riyad dedicated the collection of poemsCantos de Lamazaresto him. In 2009 he exhibited his work at theQueen Sofía Spanish Institutein New York,[13]as well as inOurense(Spain), at the Cultural Centre of the Delegation.[14]He also participated in a traveling exhibition dedicated to the poetVicente Aleixandreand received the Laxeiro Prize honoring his life's work and its international renown. In 2010 he exhibited his work at the University Church, inSantiago de Compostela,and inTui,where the documentaryHorizonte sin dueño,[15]was screened at its international film festival Play-Doc. The film, directed by the siblings Nayra and Javier Sanz (Rinoceronte Films), presents a journey through the universe of painting, poetry and nature from the perspective of Antón Lamazares.

"Antón Lamazares has always manifested a brutal affection for, so to speak," innocent "material and gesture, which isn't exactly the same as" spontaneous ". One shouldn't forget that Lamazares is an intellectually and technically very complex artist. For example, he can use a base as vulgar as cardboard, but in his hands, well-pressed and varnished, it acquires the luster of polished wood. His" scribbles ", which mimic the carelessness of children or the rudimentary schematism of self-taught artists, are impregnated, no matter what the figurative motif is, with subtle refinements."

— Francisco Calvo Serraller,Casa de la pintura,2007

On 20 May 2010 theUniversity of Santiago de Compostelaawarded him its Insignia de Oro (Golden Shield).[16]This was the first time in six centuries that this honor was conferred upon an artist. On 28 June 2010, during a ceremony held at the Igrexa de San Domingos de Bonaval, theXunta de Galicia,conferred upon him the Medalla Castelao,[17]acknowledging "the perfection, the symbolism and the transcendency of the works" as a reflection of the devotion to and faith "in the culture, the history and the essence of a people."

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Serraller, Francisco Calvo (15 March 1984)."Juana Mordó, una vida por el arte español".El País(in Spanish).
  2. ^"Antón Lamazares:" Cuando pinto trato de expresarme con cosas mínimas, y tocar el alma ""(pdf).La Vanguardia(in Spanish).
  3. ^Medrano, Antonio Saura (19 April 1988)."Chirino y Lamazares exponen en Nueva York".El País(in Spanish).
  4. ^"Fieles a su propia sangre"(pdf).ABC(in Spanish). 21 August 2019.
  5. ^Castilla, Amelia (23 September 1995)."Utilizo la pintura a bofetadas".El País(in Spanish).
  6. ^Hermida, Xosé (19 July 1996)."Lamazares presenta un montaje" poseído por el hábitat "de Galicia".El País(in Spanish).
  7. ^"Antón Lamazares:" A mi pintura hay que acercarse a gatas, con mirada de niño "; Territorios de la emoción"(pdf).ABC(in Spanish). 18 September 2019.
  8. ^Estévez, José Luis (29 December 2001)."Apoteosis del exceso".El País(in Spanish).
  9. ^Huici, Fernando (29 November 2003)."Canto de la carne".El País(in Spanish)."La carne no es triste"(pdf).ABC(in Spanish). 28 October 2019."El Kama-sutra de Lamazares".El Cultural (El Mundo)(in Spanish). Archived fromthe originalon 2011-04-18.Retrieved2010-04-10.
  10. ^Estévez, José Luis (31 May 2007)."Los demonios interiores de Lamazares asaltan el museo Kiscelli de Budapest".El País(in Spanish)."The exhibition of the painter Antón Lamazares".Museum Kiscelli.
  11. ^"Antón Lamazares expone en SCQ la serie" Domus Omnia "".La Voz de Galicia(in Spanish). 5 June 2009.
  12. ^Cuíñas, Teresa (16 September 2007)."Carlos Oroza reaparece con un libro ilustrado por Antón Lamazares".El País(in Spanish)."Un sentimiento ingrávido entre Lamazares y Oroza".Faro de Vigo(in Spanish). Archived fromthe originalon 2011-04-19.Retrieved2010-04-10.
  13. ^Pato, Alfonso (22 November 2009)."Filmando a Lamazares".El País(in Spanish)."Anton Lamazares at Queen Sofia".Village Voice.Archived fromthe originalon 2010-04-04.Retrieved2010-04-10.
  14. ^Huete, Cristina (29 January 2010)."A construción da alma de Antón Lamazares".El País(in Galician).
  15. ^"Un documental sobre el pintor Antón Lamazares levanta el telón de la sexta edición del festival de cine de Tui".La Voz de Galicia(in Spanish). 18 March 2010.
  16. ^"Pluma y pincel dorados".Faro de Vigo(in Spanish). 21 May 2010.
  17. ^Pereiro, Xosé Manuel (29 June 2010)."Creadores y funcionarias recogen las Medallas Castelao".El País(in Spanish).

Bibliography[edit]

  • AMÓN, Santiago, "La pintura de Lamazares y la luz crepuscular",Lamazares 1978-1986,A Coruña, Durán, 1986.
  • CALVO SERRALLER, Francisco, "La musa en cueros", Madrid, Montenegro, 1986; "Casa de la pintura",Domus Omnia,Madrid, Álvaro Alcázar, 2007.
  • CASTRO, Fernando, "Fragmentos de un texto que no pude escribir",Antón Lamazares. Un saco de pan duro,A Coruña, Ayto. de La Coruña, 2001.
  • CASTRO, Luisa, "Alma en lunes o la noche de las estrellas que brillan poco",Antón Lamazares. Alma en lunes,Ourense, Museo Municipal, 2002.
  • FUENTES FEO, Javier, "Inventar y divulgar nuevos secretos. En torno a la pintura de Antón Lamazares",Lamazares,Madrid, SEACEX, 2005.
  • GABILONDO, Ángel, "Del verde llover",Antón Lamazares. Gracias do lugar,Santiago de Compostela, CGAC, 1997; "Una conversación entre Ángel Gabilondo y Antón Lamazares" (entrevista),Lamazares,Madrid, SEACEX, 2005.
  • LOGROÑO, Miguel, "Todos los ojos del mundo",Reconocimientos. Colección Miguel Logroño,Santander, Museo de Bellas Artes, 2007.
  • MARTÍN GARZO, Gustavo, "Jonás y la calabacera",Antón Lamazares. Iles Quén,Madrid, La Caja Negra, 2000.
  • MIKUŽ, Jure, "La imagen original bajo las capas del palimpsesto de la conciencia",Lamazares,Madrid, SEACEX, 2005.
  • MOURE, Gloria, "Antón Lamazares",Artforum,Nueva York, mayo de 1987.
  • MURADO, Miguel-Anxo, "Hermana carne",Follente Bemil,Madrid, Metta, 2003.
  • RIVAS, Manuel, "La leyenda de Antón Lamazares",Antón Lamazares,Murcia, Palacio Almudí, 1995.
  • SANDOVAL, Michael, "Antón Lamazares. The Vagabond Shaman",Antón Lamazares,Nueva York, Queen Sofía Spanish Institute, 2009.

External links[edit]

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