Antonio Saura
Huesca, 1930 – Cuenca, 1998
Self-taught, Antonio Saura began painting and writing at the age of 15 while undergoing five years of confinement due to tuberculosis. In 1952 he experienced his first stay in Paris. His work gradually evolved from its initial surrealism towards abstraction. In 1957 he founded the El Paso group in Madrid, along with the painters Rafael Canogar and Manolo Miralles. In 1956 and 1958 he exhibits at the Venice Biennale and in 1959, 1964 and 1977 at the Documenta Kassel.
During the 1960s he takes the plunge and travels to the USA, he exhibits at the MoMA and at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and becomes one of the artists represented by the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York. Limiting his palette to blacks, greys, and browns, he came up with a personal style that was independent of the movements and trends marking his generation. In 1971 he abandoned painting on canvas (which he would take up again in 1979) in order to concentrate on writing, drawing and painting on paper. In 1977 he began publishing his writings. From 1983 until 1998, he returned to his own personal themes and figures, brilliantly developing them anew.
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