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

Collection

Fontana, n.º 1

Image caption
SUSANA SOLANO

Fontana, n.º 1

  • 1985
  • Iron (several pieces)
  • 45 x 298 x 115 cm
  • Cat. E_148
  • Acquired in 2000
By:
Isabel Tejeda

Susana Solano broke onto the domestic and international scene in the 1980s, and Fontana No. 1 (1985), the sculpture in the Banco de España Collection, belongs to that initial period of her career.

Linked to a series of works with the same title using iron, which is the main material used in Catalan sculpture, Fontana No. 1 is a work teeming with poetic suggestions. Human space is a built space, and this work is ‘a drawing in space’, as she stressed in 1992. The textures, tones and density of her works allow the material to speak, which in this case it does in the form of a clear, resounding affirmation of industrial finishing and of the textures —cut out in some places— which it allows.

The reference to water-features in the title of the work —which is Italian for ‘fountain’—, are echoed in other sculptures in the same series: they start from a certain visual analogy (Fontana No. 3, ‘la Caixa’ Collection) but continue to be enigmatic. In many of Susana Solano’s works, water shows up in engineering and architectural structures designed by human beings such as tanks, artificial basins and spas. Thus, in the tensions between mass and void that Fontana No. 1 presents, liquid occupies the place of the latter: an omitted subject that, in reality, gives meaning to the work.

Isabel Tejeda

 
By:
Isabel Tejeda
Susana Solano
Barcelona 1946

Susana Solana was born in Barcelona and studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts there, where she later lectured.

She belongs to the generation of artists who worked in what is known as the ‘new Spanish sculpture’. In the 1980s they approached sculpture not exclusively from its objectual nature but in terms of its relations with the space in which it was found; those explorations were conducted with architects such as Rafael Moneo and Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra. Susana Solano has enriched her three-dimensional work by exploring other disciplines such as video, photography and installation. She has used a whole range of materials, from those typical of the avant-garde tradition, such as iron, to more instrumental choices including plaster, iron and metal mesh as she explores their different constructive possibilities.

From the 1980s on, Susana Solano’s work became a benchmark in three-dimensional work in Spain for her use of materials, sizes and weights that had previously been practically the exclusive realm of male sculptors. Even though she creates contrasts between the artificial, the mechanical and the industrial as regards the resulting forms, her objects also have a strong symbolic character through which she gives us a glimpse of her personal concerns, her lived experiences and the importance of her own body.

Susana Solano has received important accolades, including the Special Prize from the Utsukushi-Ga-Hara Open Air Museum in Tokyo (1985), the National Award for Plastic Arts from the Spanish Ministry of Culture (1988), the Tomás Francisco Prieto Award from the Spanish Mint (2011) and the GAC Prize (2015). Her work has been exhibited at the Joan Miró Foundation (Barcelona, 1980); the Städisches Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach (Germany, 1989); the Reina Sofía (Madrid, 1992); Whitechapel Art Gallery (London, 1993); the Fundaçao de Serralves (Porto, Portugal, 1997); the Barcelona Contemporary Art Museum (1999); the Dar-al Horra Palace Exhibition Centre (Granada, 2001); the Museum of Modern Art (New York, 2006); the Helga de Alvear Gallery (Madrid, 2007); the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin, 2011) and the Suñol Foundation (Barcelona, 2014). She has taken part in major international events such as Documenta 8 and 9 (Kassel, Germany, 1987 and 1992); the São Paulo International Biennial (1987); the Skulptur Projekte (Münster, Germany, 1987); the Carnegie International (Pittsburgh, United States, 1988); and the Venice Biennale (1988 and 1993).

Isabel Tejeda

 
«Against the Grain: Contemporary Art from the Edward R. Broida Collection», Museum of Modern Art (New York, 2006). «Low Flight», Fundació Suñol (Barcelona, 2014).
Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 3.