Agustín Ibarrola started out as a painter at the Bilbao School of Arts and Craft and put on a solo show as early as 1948. That same year, he was awarded a stipend by Bilbao City Council and Bizkaia Provincial Council to continue his training in Madrid. While there, he continued studying under Daniel Vázquez Díaz, who introduced him to Cubism. In 1950 he met another Basque artist who would be fundamental in his career, Jorge Oteiza, with whom he engaged in constructive spatial discourses.
In 1957, along with Jorge Oteiza, José Duarte, Juan Serrano and Ángel Duarte, he founded Equipo 57 [Team of ‘57] in Paris, where they put on their first group exhibition at the prestigious Denise René Gallery. During that time, he combined Constructivist language with social protest, focusing on the discipline of engraving and joining the Estampa Popular de Vizcaya group (1961). This group was connected to his political affiliation as a member of the PCE [Communist Party of Spain], which was an underground movement at the time. He was arrested and thrown in jail for that reason on several occasions. Bilbao Shipyards is an example of this line of works which tend to expressionism. It depicts a river estuary that is completely different to the way it looks now: a near apocalyptic scene of red and yellow lights on the polluted estuary of an industrial, seafaring city. This was Bilbao prior to the ‘Guggenheim effect’.
In the 1980s Ibarrola turned to sculpture and produced the work for which he is best and most widely known: his paintings on the barks of trees, his Forests.
Ibarrola took part in the Pamplona Encounters (1972) and in the Venice Bienniale of 1976. In 1993, he received the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts. His solo shows include exhibitions at the Palacio de Cristal (Madrid, 1987), the San Telmo Museum (San Sebastián, 1991), the Parpalló Exhibition Centre (Valencia, 1997), the Círculo de Bellas Artes (Madrid, 1999) and the Gas Natural Fenosa Contemporary Art Museum (A Coruña, 2006), to name but a few major venues.
Agustín Ibarrola started out as a painter at the Bilbao School of Arts and Craft and put on a solo show as early as 1948. That same year, he was awarded a stipend by Bilbao City Council and Bizkaia Provincial Council to continue his training in Madrid. While there, he continued studying under Daniel Vázquez Díaz, who introduced him to Cubism. In 1950 he met another Basque artist who would be fundamental in his career, Jorge Oteiza, with whom he engaged in constructive spatial discourses.
In 1957, along with Jorge Oteiza, José Duarte, Juan Serrano and Ángel Duarte, he founded Equipo 57 [Team of ‘57] in Paris, where they put on their first group exhibition at the prestigious Denise René Gallery. During that time, he combined Constructivist language with social protest, focusing on the discipline of engraving and joining the Estampa Popular de Vizcaya group (1961). This group was connected to his political affiliation as a member of the PCE [Communist Party of Spain], which was an underground movement at the time. He was arrested and thrown in jail for that reason on several occasions. Bilbao Shipyards is an example of this line of works which tend to expressionism. It depicts a river estuary that is completely different to the way it looks now: a near apocalyptic scene of red and yellow lights on the polluted estuary of an industrial, seafaring city. This was Bilbao prior to the ‘Guggenheim effect’.
In the 1980s Ibarrola turned to sculpture and produced the work for which he is best and most widely known: his paintings on the barks of trees, his Forests.
Ibarrola took part in the Pamplona Encounters (1972) and in the Venice Bienniale of 1976. In 1993, he received the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts. His solo shows include exhibitions at the Palacio de Cristal (Madrid, 1987), the San Telmo Museum (San Sebastián, 1991), the Parpalló Exhibition Centre (Valencia, 1997), the Círculo de Bellas Artes (Madrid, 1999) and the Gas Natural Fenosa Contemporary Art Museum (A Coruña, 2006), to name but a few major venues.