Andreu Alfaro

ANDREU ALFARO HERNÁNDEZ (La Huerta, Valencia, 1929 - 2012).
"Effigy", 1992.
Corten steel.
Signed on the base.
Provenance: Joan Gaspar Gallery.
Work published in an article about the artist in La Vanguardia Cultura, 1993.
Work published in "Alfaro, Automodel. Escultures i papers", 1990-1993, Joan Gaspar Gallery, ref. 33, page 37.
Measurements: 27 x 28 x 50 cm.

In its report on Andreu Alfaro, La Vanguardia Cultura stated that the sculpture Efigie "evidences the synthesis he achieves of both minimalist reductionism and primitive essentialism. With geometric elements of different materials, opposing volume to plane, he achieves an expressiveness, lyricism and emotion that is not easy to find in sculpture at this time and that can also be seen in pieces such as "Presència".

A sculptor related to the Parpalló Group (1957), and influenced by Jorge Oteiza and the constructivists, such as Brancusi or Pevsner, from his first important works Andreu Alfaro manifested his concern for integrating sculpture into a defined architectural space. In 1961, with "La Rella", he began a second stage in which he concretized the link between artistic activity and the social community. During these years he acquired international renown through his participation in the 1966 Venice Biennale. During the last years of the sixties Alfaro entered a new stage, in which he experimented with metallic elements, creating works of kinetic character or spatial research. It was also during these years that he began to show a special interest in large sculptures, which he exhibited in the Cervantes Park in Barcelona (1977). This period also marks the beginning of his international projection and, undoubtedly, the moment of maturity of one of the most important Catalan sculptors. However, around 1980 he sought to recover an almost calligraphic stylization in his works, which led him to experiment with wire. In 1983 Alfaro made a sculpture in homage to the painter E. Sempere in Madrid. During this period he also created other outdoor sculptures in Frankfurt (1986), Madrid (1990) and Barcelona (1991). In 1996 he installed in Tarrasa a sculpture dedicated to the working woman, in 1999 he erected the "Columnes de l'Autònoma" in the university of Barcelona, and in 2001 he made a monument in memory of the victims of Nazism in Vilanova i la Geltrú. On the occasion of the Verdaguer year, in 2002 a monumental commemorative sculpture of the Catalan poet was inaugurated in the city of Vic, and in 2003 he created the sculpture "Ones" at the entrance of Barcelona. Throughout his career, Alfaro has received numerous awards, including the Jaume I Honor Award (1980), the National Plastic Arts Award (1981) and the Alfons Roig Plastic Arts Award of the Diputación de Valencia (1991). He is currently represented at the Reina Sofía Museum and the Conde Duque Center in Madrid, the IVAM and the Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, among others.