The start of Isidro’s career coincided with a great artistic fervour in Seville, centred on the magazine Figura. Juan Francisco Isidro belonged to a generation which emerged in the mid-1980s that focused on pictorial form, when conceptual pieces had practically disappeared from galleries and museums. He trained at the School of Architecture of Seville. He first emerged in 1985 in Ignacio Tovar’s project for Seville Contemporary Art Museum entitled Invaded City, which marked the start of a new generation of young artists. Two years later he began to work with the Rafael Ortiz Gallery in Seville, to which he was always closely linked.
His work is an intimate discourse, beyond fashions or fads, which combines conceptual approaches with a slow, methodical process. The interest of his work is determined largely by the radicalism and rigour of his approaches. The objects that he used to achieve his visual allegories are extremely simple and not without humour and irony. He used different materials and techniques, including paper, canvas, wood and photography, taking this last medium to unimagined heights thanks to his rare ability to imagine and discover. During his brief but prolific career, he was one of the most sensitive and promising artists of his time. He won the L’Oreal Painting Prize in 1990 and was awarded the Banesto Grant in 1992.
Three years after his death in 1993, a major exhibition of his work was held in the Guzmanes Tower (La Algaba, Seville), which showcased the most significant moments of his career. The Rafael Ortiz Gallery also organised an extensive show entitled ‘Laboratorios de silencios’ [‘Laboratories of Silence’] in 2006, with unpublished pieces. In 2011 the latest retrospective of his work, entitled ‘La intense levedad’ [‘The Intense Levity’], was held at the Sala Santa Inés in Seville.
The start of Isidro’s career coincided with a great artistic fervour in Seville, centred on the magazine Figura. Juan Francisco Isidro belonged to a generation which emerged in the mid-1980s that focused on pictorial form, when conceptual pieces had practically disappeared from galleries and museums. He trained at the School of Architecture of Seville. He first emerged in 1985 in Ignacio Tovar’s project for Seville Contemporary Art Museum entitled Invaded City, which marked the start of a new generation of young artists. Two years later he began to work with the Rafael Ortiz Gallery in Seville, to which he was always closely linked.
His work is an intimate discourse, beyond fashions or fads, which combines conceptual approaches with a slow, methodical process. The interest of his work is determined largely by the radicalism and rigour of his approaches. The objects that he used to achieve his visual allegories are extremely simple and not without humour and irony. He used different materials and techniques, including paper, canvas, wood and photography, taking this last medium to unimagined heights thanks to his rare ability to imagine and discover. During his brief but prolific career, he was one of the most sensitive and promising artists of his time. He won the L’Oreal Painting Prize in 1990 and was awarded the Banesto Grant in 1992.
Three years after his death in 1993, a major exhibition of his work was held in the Guzmanes Tower (La Algaba, Seville), which showcased the most significant moments of his career. The Rafael Ortiz Gallery also organised an extensive show entitled ‘Laboratorios de silencios’ [‘Laboratories of Silence’] in 2006, with unpublished pieces. In 2011 the latest retrospective of his work, entitled ‘La intense levedad’ [‘The Intense Levity’], was held at the Sala Santa Inés in Seville.