Biografia
Antonio Saura (Huesca, 1930-Cuenca, 1993) was an avant-garde Spanish painter who experimented with diverse mediums, including painting, lithography, engraving, prose, and poetry.
After he contracted tuberculosis at age 13 and was confined to his bed for five years, Saura reflected on his visit with his father to the Prado, impressed by Diego Velazquez and Francisco de Goya’s works. In 1947, on his way to recovery and without formal training, he began to make art. In 1954, he moved to Paris, where he met Benjamin Péret and other Surrealists. His work of this period used biomorphic forms and recalled paintings by Joan Miró, Hans Arp and Yves Tanguy.
Saura’s return to Spain in 1957 inspired a return to Spanish influences, marking a more severe style, with subject matter confined to repeatable motifs, such as the female body and portraiture. In 1957, he founded the “El Paso” group (1957–60) with other artists based in Madrid. The group is considered part of the wider movement of Spanish Informalism, along with the Catalonian group “Dau al Set” and the painter Antoni Tàpies. Before disbanding, El Paso took part in two exhibitions in New York.
In 1971, he temporarily abandoned painting on canvas to devote himself to writing, drawing and painting on paper. In 1977, he began publishing his writings, and he created several stage designs for the theatre, ballet and opera, thanks to the collaboration with his brother, the film director Carlos Saura. From 1983 to his death in 1998, he revisited all these themes and figures.
Saura’s first solo exhibition took place at the “Libros de Zaragoza” bookshop in Saragossa, Spain (1950). Retrospectives have been held in many locations, including Holland, London, Madrid and Bilbao. Saura received numerous honours and awards, including the Guggenheim International Award (1960) and the Grand Prix des Arts de la Ville de Paris (1995).