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

Collection

Sin título [Untitled]

Image caption
JUAN UGALDE

Sin título [Untitled]

  • 2011
  • Mixed techniques & collage on paper
  • 26,6 x 21,3 cm
  • Cat. D_400
  • Acquired in 2012
  • Observations: 32 works of various sizes (approx. 35 x 40 cm each). Signed: 'J. UGALDE' [Bottom left corner].
By:
Carlos Martín

Juan Ugalde is a skilled communicator who uses highly original methods and was one of the first artists to point out the atmosphere of conformism and complacency that prevailed in Spain in the 1990s, following its consolidation as part of the Western bloc, with the celebrations of 1992 as the seal of approval for Spanish democracy, marking the 'normalisation' of the country.

In Grey with boat (2001), the usual accumulation of visual references is reduced to a post-historical wasteland, seemingly devastated, containing only a boat stranded on land and a helpless Superman isolated at the very edge of the picture. This gloomy vision is the forerunner of more recent works such as the series of collages from 2011 in which the sordidness is more accentuated. Well-known images of triumphant consumerism from earlier years are mixed with elements of today's popular culture with a threatening or macabre appearance: stranded boats and characters depicted out of place or protected within diving suits. The sense of humour in these pictures is dark, and so is the palette of colours used, highlighting the pessimism of his later works. Ugalde's texts are imaginative and chaotic, like his visual art. They help us to read these works, which combine a feeling of social commentary and noisy solace with images of a down-home apocalypse: 'cities are full of boats with their keels stuck in the asphalt. It's good that this is bad, and bad that it's good. Housing blocks could be located at strategic points as monuments to human rights or to the unity of all peoples... it's all politics, all social, all noise and you can't bear it. It's enough to drive you mad’.

Carlos Martín

 
By:
Beatriz Herráez
Juan Ugalde
Bilbao 1958

Juan Ugalde is one of the major figures of the past few decades in Spanish art. Since the 1980s he has been involved in numerous initiatives that go beyond his career as a painter. Stand-out exhibitions of his work in his early years were held at the Buades Gallery and he helped set up projects such as the Estrujenbank Group, which he founded in 1989 together with Patricia Gadea, Dionisio Cañas and Mariano Lozano. In the words of its members, this group 'pursued the sublimation of the everyday environment as the starting point for various social/decorative and political/cultural operations'. He staged exhibitions and actions with the group until 1993.

In all his output (comprising paintings, photos, drawings and collages), Juan Ugalde reflects from a committed viewpoint on the effects of uncontrolled urban development. His works typically show suburban landscapes, peripheral areas and dormitory towns on the edge of cities. They are scenes that lead observers to think about 'what it means to live in the time of the post-capitalist global village', as curator Dennys Matos puts it. In producing them, Ugalde never loses his sense of humour or the irony that he showed in his early works.

Projects on which Ugalde has collaborated include the SOS Emergen Sumergin Art magazine (2000-2007) and the 143 Delicias video festival, named after the address of the former base of operations of Estrujenbank in Madrid.

Solo exhibitions of his work have been staged at the Patio Herreriano Museum (Valladolid, 2003), the Santander Museum of Fine Arts (2009) and the Amós Salvador Gallery (Logroño, 2011). He has also taken part in group exhibitions at the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, 2013), the ICO Museum (Madrid, 2011), the Santander Museum of Fine Arts (2016) and the Esteban Vicente Museum (Segovia, 2016).

Ugalde has received several major grants, including a Fulbright Grant to further his training in New York from 1986 to 1989, the Marcelino Botín Grant (Santander, 1996) and a grant from the Banesto Foundation (1994). He also won First Prize at the 9th L’Oreal Painting Contest (1992) and the Altadis Prize (2000).

Beatriz Herráez

 
«Juan Ugalde. The Ship of Fools», MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (Leon, 2023-2024).
Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, Vol. 3. Vv.Aa. Juan Ugalde. La nave de los locos, León, MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, 2023, 112.