Antonio Saura

ANTONIO SAURA (Huesca, 1930 - Cuenca, 1998).
"Pac", 1996.
Acrylic, ink and graphite on paper.
Signed and dated.
Provenance: -Galería Boisserée, Cologne -Galería Benlliure, Valencia (acquired from the previous one in 2006).
Work exhibited in Valencia, Benlliure Gallery, XIX Benlliure Exhibition, November 2006.
Measurements: 41 × 31,1 cm.; 68 × 58 cm. with frame.

"Pac" participates in Saura's most characteristic universe: fragmented figures, bodies in tension, mask-faces and a critical look at human identity. The large central black form functions as the bodily axis of the composition, while around it, faces, limbs and signs of nervous outline unfold, as if the image were in full metamorphosis.

The main figure, with an unhinged face and theatrical character, seems to hold a small figure or dummy in his left hand, which reinforces a suggestive reading of ventriloquism. The work thus oscillates between the comic and the disturbing, between the animated and the mechanical, introducing an idea of splitting, masks and manipulation very similar to Saura's usual psychological tension. The chromatic economy concentrates the attention on the line, the gesture and the expressive deformation.

Made in 1996, it belongs to the artist's final stage, when his language had been refined until it became an immediate, incisive and fully recognizable visual writing. Because of its date, technique and iconic force, it is a particularly attractive work within his production on paper.

Antonio Saura, self-taught, began his career in Madrid and soon developed an experimental language linked to surrealism. In 1957 he founded the El Paso group, participated in the 1958 Venice Biennial together with Chillida and Tàpies, and in 1960 received the Guggenheim Prize in New York. His career was recognized with numerous international exhibitions, the Grand Prize at the Lugano Biennial of Engraving, the appointment as Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of France and the Gold Medal of Fine Arts. His work is represented in institutions such as the Reina Sofia Museum, the Centre Pompidou, the Tate, the Guggenheim in New York and Bilbao, the Metropolitan Museum and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.