Fernando Bellver

FERNANDO BELLVER (Madrid, 1954).
"Bacchus". Roma series, 2011.
Oil on wood.
Signed and dated on the back.
Measurements: 100 x 100 cm.
This painting Fernando Bellver reinterprets Caravaggio's Bacchus by replacing the classical figure by Homer Simpson, being a paradigmatic example of his strategy of critical and humorous appropriation of art history. Bellver maintains the compositional structure of the original, the close framing, the relaxed attitude, the presence of the Dionysian attributes, but shifts the baroque sense towards a contemporary reading where mass culture replaces the humanist ideal. The insertion of an animated character in a canonical iconographic model operates as a double mechanism: on the one hand, it deactivates the solemnity of the referent; on the other hand, it reveals the validity of classical images as frameworks of cultural interpretation.
This work is part of a line of work that Bellver has consistently explored, also visible in his piece Adam and Eve, which departs from Dürer's mythical work, replacing the biblical progenitors with Fred Flintstone and Vilma. In both cases, the artist activates a dialogue between high culture and popular culture, problematizing visual hierarchies and exhibiting the permeability of the contemporary collective imaginary.
Fernando Bellver was trained in Madrid and furthered his studies in Oslo thanks to a scholarship from the Norwegian Ministry of Culture. He began his career in the eighties, holding exhibitions in Madrid galleries such as Nolde or Tórculo. During these years he participated in important fairs such as ARCO, in addition to obtaining several awards.
In the middle of the decade he is invited to the Impact Art Festival in Kyoto, and as a professor of engraving at the University of Austin, USA. He continues to hold exhibitions, both in Spain and in Hungary, Norway, France, England, Taiwan, United States, etc., and between 1986 and 1987 he holds a solo exhibition of works on paper at the Museum of Fine Arts in Granada. Two years later he held another personal exhibition of graphic work at the City University of New York.
As part of his activity as a graphic artist, he has also been invited by the governments of Norway and Egypt to produce series on these countries. Now fully recognized internationally, Bellver has participated in fairs such as the Art Expo in New York and Basel, and has exhibited his work all over the world. In the mid-nineties he won the Gold Medal for engraving at the Biennial of Alexandria, and was a member of the jury for the National Engraving Prize of the Calcografía Nacional.
He is currently represented in the MNCA Reina Sofía, the ICO Collection, the Centro Conde Duque in Madrid, the Rashid Collection in Alexandria, the National Library, the Marcelino Botín Foundation, the Museums of Contemporary Art in Cairo and Jaén, the Museum of Fine Arts in Granada, New York University, the National Chalcography, the BBVA, Juan March and Chase Manhattan Bank collections and the Diputación de Sevilla, among other public and private collections.