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

Collection

Nota 4 [Note 4]

Image caption
FERRÁN GARCÍA SEVILLA

Nota 4 [Note 4]

  • 1988
  • Acrylic on fabric
  • 175 x 200 cm
  • Cat. P_474
  • Acquired in 1991
By:
Carlos Martín

Following a period experimenting with conceptual art, in the 1980s Ferran García Sevilla joined the wider 'return to painting' movement, under the umbrella of which Spanish art entered the postmodern era. However, what distinguishes his work from that of his contemporaries is the way his work is firmly grounded in ideas. He is interested in religious anthropology, metaphysics and the mystical traditions of various cultures, ranging from Tantra to Sufism, of which he said: 'The principle of the mystical lies on the frontier, on the reverse side of the word, of everything that does not accept descriptions, no matter how metaphorical it may be'. His work penetrates a depth of content that distances it from the tautological and superficial temptation of 'painting for painting's sake', keeping it within the confines of the utopian dimension of conceptualism, which at the time was being overshadowed by the transformation of the art system in Spain. As the artist himself put it: 'Art, whatever its external materialisation, is a search for purity, for perfection, for working on the essence of things'.

Throughout the 1980s, he embarked on a series of intermittently varying periods and interests, spawning some radical variations in his painting. The extraordinary profusion of his work can be seen in the numerous series he produced in the space of just four years, from 1985 to 1989, including Paradise, Erase, Tot, Mona, Ruc, Cien, Tecla, Mosaics and Bas-reliefs.

Note 4 (1988) dates from this non-figurative period in which objects, animals and recognisable body parts are reduced to slight abstract forms floating in an undefined ether, leading critics to compare this García Sevilla with Joan Miró's most stripped-down paintings, and to trace his inspirations further back to the biomorphism of Hans Arp. As well as showing the influence of the historical avant-garde, this shift towards the abstract is significant in an author who frequently adds written language to his canvases. In a clear statement of intent, he presented these pieces in 1989 with no explanatory text other than a poem by the Persian poet Rumi, a pioneer of Sufism, whose verses eloquently express this abandonment of the literal language that had been a strong feature of his painting and his conceptual work, and the momentary muting of his art work: 'I have torn to pieces my robe of speech / You who are not naked yet, you can go back to sleep'.

Carlos Martín

 
By:
Roberto Díaz
Ferrán García Sevilla
Palma 1949

In 1969, Ferrán García Sevilla moved to Barcelona to study at the Central University, where he later lectured in art history. He initially took up conceptual art, but abandoned it in the late 1970s to devote himself exclusively to painting. He went on to become one of the leading international exponents of the 'return to painting' movement of the 1980s, with neo-expressionist works showing influences from Joan Miró, Paul Klee, art brut, primitive oriental cultures and urban art expressions such as graffiti. In the 1980s, he developed his own personal symbolic universe of easily identifiable forms, in which anthropomorphic presences were often reduced to silhouettes. He also included textual references alluding to the artist himself and his work, in strongly cryptic combinations and compositions, but with a great expressive charge, on undefined colour backgrounds. In the late 1980s, his work shifted more and more towards abstraction in synthetic forms, dominated by lines, circles, dots, spirals and arrows, as forms of energy in indefinite spaces, which he executed using stippling, drips and stains. By the turn of the century, these had become pure constellations of colour on neutral backgrounds.

His early series, such as Déus (1981) and later Ruc (1987), earned him a place on the international scene and his work was exhibited at the Venice Biennale (1986), Prospect Frankfurt (Frankfurt, Germany, 1986), Documenta 8 (Kassel, Germany, 1987) and the São Paulo Biennial (1996). He has staged solo exhibitions at the Reina Sofía Museum (Madrid, 1989); the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (1996); the Centre del Carme at the Valencia Institute of Modern Art (IVAM) (Valencia, 1998); the Patio Herreriano Museum (Valladolid, 2010); and the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin, 2010).

Roberto Díaz

 
«From Goya to our times. Perspectives of the Banco de España Collection», Musée Mohammed VI d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (Rabat, 2017-2018).
Yolanda Romero & Isabel Tejeda De Goya a nuestros días. Miradas a la Colección Banco de España, Madrid & Rabat, AECID y FMN, 2017. Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 2.