Helena Almeida: 'Seduzir' [To Seduce, 2002] (detail)

Collection

Elogio del descontento [In Praise of Discontent]

Image caption
JORGE OTEIZA

Elogio del descontento [In Praise of Discontent]

  • 1991
  • Cast, patinated 10/15 mm Corten steel
  • 300 x 376 x 287 cm
  • Cat. E_92
  • Comissioned from the artist in 1991
By:
Beatriz Herráez

The documents held in the archives of the Jorge Oteiza Foundation Museum in Alzuza (Navarre) include a letter written by the sculptor to his friend and patron Juan Huarte and to architect Juan Daniel Fullaondo. It is dated 12 September 1991 and headed 'My last sculpture in praise of discontent'. In it, Oteiza refers to the work now held in the Banco de España Collection and states that the interest shown by Deputy Governor Ángel Rojo and the words of Fullaondo had finally convinced him to accept the commission from the Bank: 'My current situation, my age, my two books which I have been trying to complete for the Pamiela publishing house, plus the fact that I had retired from sculpting, made it impossible for me to accept. It was the architect Juan Daniel Fullaondo who convinced me that as my last sculpture, this piece would be of interest in both real and symbolic terms and that I should say yes'.

As he himself says, this was a time when he was devoting himself mainly to writing, but he agreed to make In praise of discontent (1991) as an 'exception'. The letter indicates that the sculpture was initially intended to stand 'on the Monpas promontory at the end of the promenade' in San Sebastián, but in a polemic decision it was rejected by the city council and he ended up using it in answer to the request from the Banco de España. It stands 3 m high and is made of Corten steel. It was begun at the 'Chalk Laboratory' set up by Oteiza in 1971, with models entitled Hau Madrilentzat [Basque for 'This for Madrid'] and linked to another public sculpture project that never materialsed, for the Paseo de la Castellana avenue in Madrid. The figure is similar to an insulting gesture used in Spain [equivalent to 'flipping the bird'] and, to paraphrase Oteiza's own description, it symbolised his feelings as the 'visual response of the Basque Country to the centralism of the deaf and blind politicians in Madrid'.

Beatriz Herráez

 
By:
Beatriz Herráez
Jorge Oteiza
Orio (Gipuzkoa) 1908 - San Sebastián 2003

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.

Beatriz Herráez

 
 
Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 3.