Teresa Duclós

Seville 1934

By: Roberto Díaz

The painter and engraver Teresa Duclós was one of the leading lights of the Andalusian realist school of the second half of the 20th century. She first trained at the Seville School of Arts and Crafts (1949-1952) and then at the Santa Isabel de Hungría School of Fine Arts in Seville (1955-1963), where she specialised in engraving. In 1959, she was awarded the Landscape Scholarship to study in Granada. She was involved in the setting up of La Pasarela Gallery in Seville in 1965, along with Enrique Roldán and the Sevillian artists Carmen Laffón and José Soto, with whom she also founded El Taller, the painting, drawing and engraving studio (1967-69). Duclós has remained faithful to her way of painting and interpreting nature, mainly of landscapes from around her family estate ‘La Laguna’ in Huelva. Her style is a sort of lyrical realism where the absence of the human presence gives her work a strong timeless element. This absence of people also extends to her still-lifes, in the corners of gardens or interiors which she approaches with the same poetics as in the landscapes, with a refined technique and a melancholic atmosphere that floods the compositions.

Duclós has never wished to stage many exhibitions of her work and has only exhibited sporadically in galleries in Seville and Madrid. From her first solo show at La Pasarela Gallery (Seville, 1967), her work has been exhibited at cultural institutions such as the El Monte Foundation (Seville, 1988); the Caja San Fernando (Seville and Jerez, 2001 and 2003); and the Antonio Povedano Art Centre (Priego de Córdoba, Cordoba, 2016). Duclós’s work was also included in important exhibitions on Spanish realism, such as the ones held at the Cáceres Contemporary Art Museum (1983) or at the Rodríguez-Acosta Foundation (Granada, 1988); as well as on Andalusian Art at the Contemporary Art Museum and Contemporary Art Centre of Andalusia (Seville, 1988 and 2002). In 1964, she was awarded First Prize for Engraving at the Seville General Directorate for Fine Arts (1964).