Francisco Bores grew up in a family of politicians and civil servants. He was born in the year of what is known in Spain as the ‘Disaster of ‘98’. At the time his father was the last Spanish governor of the Philippines, one of only three overseas territories still held by Spain (the others being Cuba and Puerto Rico). He studied at Cecilio Pla’s studio in Madrid for three years, where Pancho Cossío was one of his fellow students. His love for art led him to join the Ultraist movement, which did a great deal to bring the ideas of the European avant-gardes to Spain. He worked on the magazines Alfar, Índice and above all Revista de Occidente, for which he illustrated The Black Decameron by Leo Frobenius in 1925. In that same year he took part in an exhibition of the Association of Iberian Artists, with sixteen works which were highly praised by the critics. Encouraged by Pancho Cossío, he decided to move to Paris, where he met Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris. They both influenced his work, but Bores was more interested in Surrealism and Fauvism, and his style was a synthesis of various avant-gardes. In Paris he also met men of letters and critics Max Jacob, André Breton, Jean Cocteau, Louis Aragon, Christian Zervos and Tériade, who was to be his strongest supporter, and artists Pablo Gargallo, André Derain, Alberto Giacometti and Henri Matisse. He struck up a long, close friendship with Matisse. Having settled permanently in France, he put on his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Percier in Paris in 1927; two years later he took part in the Salon des Surindépendants, where he then exhibited regularly until 1937. After that time he left his home at the villa Saint-Jacques only to make occasional trips to Spain. In 1964 he designed the stained-glass windows for the Montbrison Seminary and produced the illustrations for Lament for the death of Ignacio Sánchez Mejías by Federico García Lorca. In 1966 he was made an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts by the then French Culture Minister André Malraux. After a long absence from Spain, in his later years he was able to exhibit there twice, in 1969 and 1971, both at the Theo Gallery in Madrid. In 1999 the Reina Sofía Museum held a retrospective of his work under the title ’Bores esencial. 1926-1971’ [“Essential Bores”].
Francisco Bores grew up in a family of politicians and civil servants. He was born in the year of what is known in Spain as the ‘Disaster of ‘98’. At the time his father was the last Spanish governor of the Philippines, one of only three overseas territories still held by Spain (the others being Cuba and Puerto Rico). He studied at Cecilio Pla’s studio in Madrid for three years, where Pancho Cossío was one of his fellow students. His love for art led him to join the Ultraist movement, which did a great deal to bring the ideas of the European avant-gardes to Spain. He worked on the magazines Alfar, Índice and above all Revista de Occidente, for which he illustrated The Black Decameron by Leo Frobenius in 1925. In that same year he took part in an exhibition of the Association of Iberian Artists, with sixteen works which were highly praised by the critics. Encouraged by Pancho Cossío, he decided to move to Paris, where he met Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris. They both influenced his work, but Bores was more interested in Surrealism and Fauvism, and his style was a synthesis of various avant-gardes. In Paris he also met men of letters and critics Max Jacob, André Breton, Jean Cocteau, Louis Aragon, Christian Zervos and Tériade, who was to be his strongest supporter, and artists Pablo Gargallo, André Derain, Alberto Giacometti and Henri Matisse. He struck up a long, close friendship with Matisse. Having settled permanently in France, he put on his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Percier in Paris in 1927; two years later he took part in the Salon des Surindépendants, where he then exhibited regularly until 1937. After that time he left his home at the villa Saint-Jacques only to make occasional trips to Spain. In 1964 he designed the stained-glass windows for the Montbrison Seminary and produced the illustrations for Lament for the death of Ignacio Sánchez Mejías by Federico García Lorca. In 1966 he was made an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts by the then French Culture Minister André Malraux. After a long absence from Spain, in his later years he was able to exhibit there twice, in 1969 and 1971, both at the Theo Gallery in Madrid. In 1999 the Reina Sofía Museum held a retrospective of his work under the title ’Bores esencial. 1926-1971’ [“Essential Bores”].