Forced to spend five years in bed recovering from TB, Saura was an autodidact. He began to write and paint in 1943. Following his recovery, in 1951 he travelled to Paris for the first time. He later returned to the city to live between 1954 and 1955. During his time there, he struck up a friendship with Benjamin Péret and mixed with the surrealists. As a result, on his return to Spain in 1957, he and other artists and writers (among others, Luis Feito, Rafael Canogar, Martín Chirino or José Ayllón), founded the group El Paso, which he directed and led until it was broken up in 1960. In 1966 he travelled to Cuba and in 1967 he returned to Paris, where he settled permanently, enjoying increasing international acclaim. Throughout his career, Saura took part in numerous seminars, talks and conferences on art and culture; collaborated in filmmaking projects; curated exhibitions; designed theatre sets; and through his writings, which he began to publish in the late 1970s and early 1980s, laid the foundations of his political position. In 1985 he designed the set for Woyzeck, directed by Eusebio Lázaro, in Madrid; In 1991 he participated with his brother Carlos Saura and Luis García Navarro in the production of the opera Carmen for the Staatstheater in Stuttgart. He died in Cuenca in 1998. Saura received numerous awards and recognitions: the Guggenheim Award (1960), the Carnegie Award (1964), Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres de France (1981) and Gold Medal for Fine Arts (1982).
Saura was initially influenced by surrealism, Michel Tapié's seminal book Un Art Autre and the work of artists such as Jackson Pollock, Jean Dubuffet and Jean Fautrier. Due to his reflective intensity, behind the composition and pictorial gesture of his work, one senses a desire to show that part of the human being, somewhere between the beautiful and the grotesque, that naturally affords us a view of his most instinctive feelings. His work bears his own unmistakable authorial stamp, with an abstract expression formed of paint marks and an austerity of colour. It seeks not only to draw out the turbulences of the artist himself, but also those of everyone who considered him to be the quintessential painter of sadness and rebellion.
His first solo exhibition was held at the Sala Libros in Zaragoza in 1950. Many others followed, at venues that included the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (Germany, 1964); Casa de las Américas (Havana, 1966); the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, 1963, 1964 and 1979); Galería Maeght (Barcelona, 1975); the Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona, 1980); the Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art (Madrid, 1982); Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts, United USA, 1989); the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (Geneva, Switzerland, 1989); the Instituto Cervantes in Paris (1992); and the Museo d'Arte della Svizzera italiana (Lugano, Switzerland, 1994). Since his death, several solo exhibitions of his work have been held, including 'Damas', at the Juan March Foundation (Madrid, 2005); 'Itinerarios de Antonio Saura' [Itineraries of Antonio Saura]', at the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, 2005); 'Songe et mensonge / une parabole moderne (1958-1962) d'Antonio Saura', in Les Abattoirs (Toulouse, France, 2006). In 2016 his work was shown as part of the major exhibition 'Campo cerrado. Arte y poder en la posguerra española. 1939-1953' ['Campo Cerrado. Art and power in the Spanish Post-War period'], at the Museo Reina Sofía. He participated in the Venice Biennale with Eduardo Chillida and Antoni Tàpies (1958) and later as an artist and member of the organising committee (1976).
Forced to spend five years in bed recovering from TB, Saura was an autodidact. He began to write and paint in 1943. Following his recovery, in 1951 he travelled to Paris for the first time. He later returned to the city to live between 1954 and 1955. During his time there, he struck up a friendship with Benjamin Péret and mixed with the surrealists. As a result, on his return to Spain in 1957, he and other artists and writers (among others, Luis Feito, Rafael Canogar, Martín Chirino or José Ayllón), founded the group El Paso, which he directed and led until it was broken up in 1960. In 1966 he travelled to Cuba and in 1967 he returned to Paris, where he settled permanently, enjoying increasing international acclaim. Throughout his career, Saura took part in numerous seminars, talks and conferences on art and culture; collaborated in filmmaking projects; curated exhibitions; designed theatre sets; and through his writings, which he began to publish in the late 1970s and early 1980s, laid the foundations of his political position. In 1985 he designed the set for Woyzeck, directed by Eusebio Lázaro, in Madrid; In 1991 he participated with his brother Carlos Saura and Luis García Navarro in the production of the opera Carmen for the Staatstheater in Stuttgart. He died in Cuenca in 1998. Saura received numerous awards and recognitions: the Guggenheim Award (1960), the Carnegie Award (1964), Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres de France (1981) and Gold Medal for Fine Arts (1982).
Saura was initially influenced by surrealism, Michel Tapié's seminal book Un Art Autre and the work of artists such as Jackson Pollock, Jean Dubuffet and Jean Fautrier. Due to his reflective intensity, behind the composition and pictorial gesture of his work, one senses a desire to show that part of the human being, somewhere between the beautiful and the grotesque, that naturally affords us a view of his most instinctive feelings. His work bears his own unmistakable authorial stamp, with an abstract expression formed of paint marks and an austerity of colour. It seeks not only to draw out the turbulences of the artist himself, but also those of everyone who considered him to be the quintessential painter of sadness and rebellion.
His first solo exhibition was held at the Sala Libros in Zaragoza in 1950. Many others followed, at venues that included the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (Germany, 1964); Casa de las Américas (Havana, 1966); the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, 1963, 1964 and 1979); Galería Maeght (Barcelona, 1975); the Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona, 1980); the Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art (Madrid, 1982); Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts, United USA, 1989); the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (Geneva, Switzerland, 1989); the Instituto Cervantes in Paris (1992); and the Museo d'Arte della Svizzera italiana (Lugano, Switzerland, 1994). Since his death, several solo exhibitions of his work have been held, including 'Damas', at the Juan March Foundation (Madrid, 2005); 'Itinerarios de Antonio Saura' [Itineraries of Antonio Saura]', at the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, 2005); 'Songe et mensonge / une parabole moderne (1958-1962) d'Antonio Saura', in Les Abattoirs (Toulouse, France, 2006). In 2016 his work was shown as part of the major exhibition 'Campo cerrado. Arte y poder en la posguerra española. 1939-1953' ['Campo Cerrado. Art and power in the Spanish Post-War period'], at the Museo Reina Sofía. He participated in the Venice Biennale with Eduardo Chillida and Antoni Tàpies (1958) and later as an artist and member of the organising committee (1976).