"Kieff" Antonio Grediaga.

"KIEFF" ANTONIO GREDIAGA (Madrid, 1936).
"Havana, profiles and moldings", 2004.
Gouache on paper.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 57 x 77 cm; 61 x 81 cm (frame).
Kieff Antonio Grediaga began his artistic training in the Salesian Schools of Franco Rodriguez, in Madrid, during his youth. At the age of 14 he began working in his father's cabinetmaking workshop and, at the same time, attended night drawing courses given by the architect of the Villa de Madrid, Luis Gutiérrez Soto. He later studied architecture at the Cantos Irigoyen Academy in Madrid, where he soon revealed his artistic talent as a draftsman.
At the age of 21 he emigrated to Brazil, where he participated in the construction of the mural of the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia. Later he moved to Buenos Aires. In this city he studied the art of luthier and dramatic art at the Escuela Nacional de Interpretación, where he also studied music, piano and lyrical singing. In 1965 he moved to Vienna to continue his training at the Musicakademie, specializing in vocal and performing arts. It was there that his passion for sculpture awakened definitively.
With more than three hundred exhibitions in galleries, international fairs and museums, Kieff established himself as a first class artist. All of his work maintains a profound relationship with music. In his own words: "My great masters were Manuel de Falla, Federico García Lorca, Cervantes, Mozart, Schubert... They guided my life", as well as Arp, Brancusi, Naum Gabo and Barbara Hepworth, fundamental references in his sculptural language.
His first exhibition was held in 1968 at the Moos Gallery in Montreal, where all the pieces were acquired, a fact that consolidated his international projection. Since then he has presented his work in galleries and fairs in Canada, the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Israel and several European countries. Among his recent exhibitions is El canto del hierro (Cádiz, 2022), dedicated to Manuel de Falla's Siete canciones populares españolas (Seven Popular Spanish Songs). In the urban sphere, his monumental sculpture The Turning Point (iron and aluminum) was exhibited in Columbus Circle, New York, as part of an international fair held in 1980.
Kieff's work is part of institutional collections such as the National Museum of Fine Arts (Havana, Cuba), the Museo Emilio Bacardi Moreau (Santiago de Cuba) and the Museum of the City (Madrid, Spain). His production ranges from small-format bronzes to monumental structures in iron, wood or marble. Currently, the Kieff Antonio Grediaga Foundation, with headquarters and museum under construction in Tendilla (Guadalajara), works on the preservation of his legacy, the dissemination of his work and the training of new generations of creators.