Eduardo Úrculo

EDUARDO ÚRCULO FERNÁNDEZ (Santurce, Vizcaya, 1938 - Madrid, 2003)
Untitled, 1975.
Acrylic on canvas.
Presents damages in the frame.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 150 x 180 cm; 154 x 184 cm (frame).
This work reflects Úrculo's aesthetics during the 1970s, when his work was characterized by compositions of intense colors, polished surfaces and an increasingly recognizable iconography, where the narrative is mixed with the enigmatic. This painting shows two nude female figures, with soft anatomies and modeled with chromatic gradations that emphasize their volumetrics. The figures, with their backs turned, interact with an element that meanders in the composition, under a full moon that dominates a simplified seascape. This suspended, almost unreal atmosphere refers to a symbolic universe where eroticism, nature and decoration are intertwined. Úrculo's iconography finds here some of its most characteristic features of the seventies. During this period he intensely explored the female body, understood not only as an object of desire but also as a plastic form. Likewise, the taste for textiles, decorative patterns and richly treated surfaces is another distinctive element. In this work, the printed cloths and the large undulating form introduce a dynamism that contrasts with the serenity of the landscape, providing an almost surrealistic component.
Painter and sculptor, one of the best exponents of pop art in Spain, Eduardo Úrculo began painting as a child, without any artistic training, and in 1957 he published his first illustrated strips in the Oviedo newspaper "La Nueva España". Shortly after, he moved to Madrid and began to take classes at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. In 1959 he went to Paris, where he furthered his training at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In 1967 he made a trip to Northern Europe, and it was then that he first came into contact with American pop. In the eighties, he lived in New York, where he carried out important projects. In 1992 he returned to Paris. In this last period he added to his repertoire the theme of the traveler confronted with the great modern city, an ironic variant of the figure of the romantic overwhelmed by the landscape. This formal evolution could be seen through the numerous individual exhibitions he held around the world since 1959, as well as in anthologies (Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid, 1997, and Museo del Grabado Español Contemporáneo de Marbella, 2000). Úrculo is currently present in numerous museums and collections of modern art, among them the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderno in Rome, the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Bogotá, the AENA, Testimoni and Fundesco collections, the Museo del Dibujo Castillo de Larrés, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Vilafamés and others.