Alberto García Alix

ALBERTO GARCÍA-ALIX (León, 1956).
"Portrait of Enrique Bunbury", 1990.
Silver bromide gelatin photography. Exemplary 6/7.
Presents label on the back of the gallery Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid.
Signed, dated and titled on the back.
Measurements: 46 x 46 cm; 70 x 70 cm (frame).
In the book Llorando a aquella que creyó amarme, García-Alix related that due to the lack of connection between the singer Enrique Bunbury and himself, he suggested to him to photograph only his boots, placing on them the hat he was wearing. For García-Alix, this was nothing more than a maneuver to avoid the character in front of him. The most surprising thing is that Bunbury was fascinated by the symbolism of that image.
Renowned Spanish photographer, he was one of the stalwarts of the "movida madrileña". Since in the eighties García-Alix immortalized the atmosphere and the protagonists of this cultural movement that would eventually acquire prestige in their respective fields (Pedro Almodóvar, Rossy de Palma, Camarón de la Isla...), his photographic work has also been revalued over the years. He received the National Photography Award in 1999. He was a special guest of El País newspaper in ARCO'10. He has held solo exhibitions in galleries (Buades, Moriarty , Efti in Madrid; Tecla Sala and H2O in Barcelona, Cavenamen in Seville...) and museums, among others: the MUSAC (León), in the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo, in the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Madrid, in the Museo Reina Sofía (retrospective in 2008) and, these days is still underway the retrospective dedicated to him La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Barcelona: "Alberto García-Alix, autorretrat", 2013. Whether he appears directly or his most intimate surroundings, from his cat to his lovers, from his bedroom to the urban corners he saved from anonymity by integrating them into an epic tale, his work as a whole can be understood as a great self-portrait. García-Alix defines himself as "a rabid exhibitionist of my time and my anguish". On another occasion he states: "The people I have treated and photographed are only a part of my generation, the most lost. Ninety percent of my chronological generation has nothing to do with me. I tend to portray more anonymous beings than well-known people. Those I have portrayed were always on the edge".