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

Collection

Outofeden

Image caption
CARLOS LEÓN

Outofeden

  • 2000
  • Ten magazine pages altered, scanned and printed on an Iris Printer
  • 102 x 76 cm
  • Cat. F_449
  • Acquired in 2004
By:
Isabel Tejeda

Carlos León lived in New York from 1995 to 2002. Just before he left the city, he produced a series of ten pieces that combined manual and mechanical production. He altered pages from a large-format magazine, selected mainly for their visual interest, using paint and solvents. He deformed photographs, scratched the surfaces, blotted and diluted the scenes shown and ended up with something completely different from the originals. He then scanned them in a laboratory and printed them out using an Iris Printer. His original intention was to produce runs of pictures, but this proved impossible (only two copies were made of some of them), so the collection held by the Banco de España can be considered as a one-off.

These works on paper are linked to the lyrical, abstract universe that characterises León. The only contingent reference is the play on words used as their title: 'Outofeden' looks like a German word, but it is actually just "Out of Eden" with the words run together. Outofeden has only been put on show once, in 2000, at the DV Gallery in San Sebastián, which was managed at the time by Lourdes Fernández. Carlos León still owns the original altered images, which he brought out at the solo exhibition of his work at the Esteban Vicente Museum in Segovia in 2017.

Isabel Tejeda

 
By:
Beatriz Herráez
Carlos León
Ceuta 1948

Carlos León began to study Medicine in Valladolid, but dropped out in 1968 to pursue a career as an artist. His first solo exhibition was at the Jacobo Gallery in Valladolid in 1970. This marked the beginning of a journey that led him to the free workshops of L’École des Beaux-Art in Paris, where he spent 1972 and came across the Supports/Surfaces movement. In the years that followed he took part in major exhibitions such as '10 Abstractos' ['10 Abstracts'] at the Buades Gallery in Madrid (1975) and 'Vanguardia artística y realidad social, 1936-1976' ['Artistic avant-garde and social reality, 1936-1976'] at the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1976). In 1979 he moved back to Paris for a year, under a grant from the Juan March Foundation. In 1985 he secured a grant from the Spanish American Committee to spend a year in New York, where he was tutored by Anthony Caro. On his return to Spain, he gave a workshop on Current Art organised by the Círculo de Bellas Artes and was appointed as a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cuenca. In 1995 he went back to New York, where he remained until 2002, when he returned to Spain and lived in Segovia for the rest of his life.

His work is based on a mature reflection on the languages of abstraction. He is considered one of the soundest of all Spanish artists. Critic Francisco Calvo Serraller has described his work as the result of 'the perfect synthesis of expressionist spontaneity, elegance, sensuality and mystery...'. He has a profound knowledge of the techniques of his discipline and of the history of art, and he has applied that knowledge with determination throughout his career, from his earliest canvases associated with the Supports/Surfaces movement in France and with American abstract painting to his current works, which reflect a highly personal style.

His latest exhibitions include events at the Esteban Vicente Museum (Segovia, 2017), the Palacio de los Condes de Gabia (Granada, 2016), the Alcalá 31 Gallery (Madrid, 2015) and the Newcastle Foundation (Fuentes de Olmedo, Valladolid, 2015). In 2014 his works were shown at the Centre for Contemporary Art of Galicia in Santiago de Compostela, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid and the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid.

Beatriz Herráez

 
«Outofeden, Carlos León», Galeria DV (San Sebastián, 2000). «Stays. Carlos León», Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente (Segovia, 2017).
José María Parreño, Carlos León & Luis Francisco Pérez Estancias Carlos León, Madrid, Museo Esteban Vicente, 2017. Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 3.