Jorge Oteiza is considered one of the key figures of 20th century art in the Basque Country and in Spain as a whole. He was a scholar of and an expert in cutting-edge artistic and literary movements. In the 1930s he began a journey that took him to many towns and cities in the Americas, including Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires and Bogotá. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War meant that he did not return until 1947. On his return he was commissioned to produce a set of statues for the shrine of Our Lady of Aránzazu. This controversial project was eventually completed in 1969.
Oteiza's career is marked by a rich, complex process of investigation in the 1950s into abstract art and an 'active disregard' for sculpture which ended with him abandoning the medium in 1959. Two years before this decision, which led him to undertake experimental educational projects linked to restoring the political role of art, Oteiza won the First Prize for Sculpture at the 1957 São Paulo Biennial. He also took part in the Milan Triennale in 1951 and in the international competition to design a sculpture on the theme of 'The Unknown Political Prisoner' in London in 1952.
In 1963 he wrote an essay entitled 'Quousque tandem!: ensayo de interpretación estética del alma vasca' ['Quousque Tandem! An essay on the aesthetic interpretation of the Basque soul']. This influential essay set out many of his lines of experimental thinking. This was followed by 'Ejercicios espirituales en un túnel: en busca y encuentro de nuestra identidad perdida' ['Spiritual exercises in a tunnel: the search for & location of our lost identity'] in 1965, though it remained unpublished until the 1980s, and 'Existe Dios al Noroeste' ['God exists in the North West'] in 1990.
With artist Txomin Badiola as curator, Oteiza's work was presented at the exhibition 'Oteiza. Propósito Experimental' ['Oteiza, Experimental Purpose'] in Bilbao, Barcelona & Madrid (1988). Years later, Badiola and Margit Rowell jointly curated the exhibition 'Oteiza. Mito y modernidad' ['Oteiza. Myth and Modernity'] at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in 2004, at the Guggenheim in New York in 2005 and at the Reina Sofía in Madrid in 2005. In 2003 the Jorge Oteiza Foundation was set up in Alzuza, Navarre, to show the legacy left by the artist.
Jorge Oteiza is considered one of the key figures of 20th century art in the Basque Country and in Spain as a whole. He was a scholar of and an expert in cutting-edge artistic and literary movements. In the 1930s he began a journey that took him to many towns and cities in the Americas, including Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires and Bogotá. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War meant that he did not return until 1947. On his return he was commissioned to produce a set of statues for the shrine of Our Lady of Aránzazu. This controversial project was eventually completed in 1969.
Oteiza's career is marked by a rich, complex process of investigation in the 1950s into abstract art and an 'active disregard' for sculpture which ended with him abandoning the medium in 1959. Two years before this decision, which led him to undertake experimental educational projects linked to restoring the political role of art, Oteiza won the First Prize for Sculpture at the 1957 São Paulo Biennial. He also took part in the Milan Triennale in 1951 and in the international competition to design a sculpture on the theme of 'The Unknown Political Prisoner' in London in 1952.
In 1963 he wrote an essay entitled 'Quousque tandem!: ensayo de interpretación estética del alma vasca' ['Quousque Tandem! An essay on the aesthetic interpretation of the Basque soul']. This influential essay set out many of his lines of experimental thinking. This was followed by 'Ejercicios espirituales en un túnel: en busca y encuentro de nuestra identidad perdida' ['Spiritual exercises in a tunnel: the search for & location of our lost identity'] in 1965, though it remained unpublished until the 1980s, and 'Existe Dios al Noroeste' ['God exists in the North West'] in 1990.
With artist Txomin Badiola as curator, Oteiza's work was presented at the exhibition 'Oteiza. Propósito Experimental' ['Oteiza, Experimental Purpose'] in Bilbao, Barcelona & Madrid (1988). Years later, Badiola and Margit Rowell jointly curated the exhibition 'Oteiza. Mito y modernidad' ['Oteiza. Myth and Modernity'] at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in 2004, at the Guggenheim in New York in 2005 and at the Reina Sofía in Madrid in 2005. In 2003 the Jorge Oteiza Foundation was set up in Alzuza, Navarre, to show the legacy left by the artist.