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

Collection

Sin título [Untitled]

Image caption
ANDREU ALFARO

Sin título [Untitled]

  • 1980
  • Chrome steel
  • 90 x 31 x 24 cm
  • Cat. E_52
  • Acquired in 1983
  • Observations: Purchased at the Art Solidaritat Action for people made homeless by the floods of October 82.
By:
Frederic Montornés

Alfaro, a self-taught artist who learnt to paint and draw during the second half of the 1950s, moved to working in three dimensions towards the end of the same decade, influenced by sculptors such as Jorge Oteiza and Constructivists Constantin Brâncusi and Antoine Pevsner. He remained faithful to his own personal style and committed to formal experimentation with geometries in steel and aluminium; kinetic works particularly noted for the beauty of the marble and limestone columns used; he produced a wide range of works on a large scale from the mid-1960s onwards, to be placed in public spaces as collective and commemorative monuments.

Alfaro began his career as an artist in Valencia. He used the methodology of industrial processes and materials in his oeuvre, and was driven by the conviction that sculpture can and must serve to symbolise collective attitudes and arguments. His work quickly showed a commitment to society, with works presented in shows where spectators came to play an important role.

This work from 1980 is built out of stainless steel. It was produced at a time when Alfaro’s work was already recognised for its high level of experimentation, but his characteristic heterodoxy was curbed as everyone always expected the same of him. It uses one of his flagship materials, and became an example of the direction in which he was moving, with emphasis on freedom, the importance of the theme in producing a work and, above all, the need to make it clear that reason and spontaneity must always be united. Conceived as a sculpture drawn in space or as a sort of multi-linear sketch in three-dimensional terms. The direct, fluid style reflects the importance that drawing progressively acquired for him (‘nothing is prohibited to my hand, everything is possible’, he said). This work by Alfaro comes from the structure of the generatrix which the artist researched during the 1970s. It consists of multiple stainless steel and aluminium rods or tubes, usually unfolded in complex three-dimensional arrays, theoretically abstract geometric shapes, elements alluding to concepts and experiences, vague figures or, in general, works characterised by the virtue of being radically transformed according to perspective and, above all, the effect of light.

Frederic Montornés

 
By:
Isabel Tejeda
Andreu Alfaro
Valencia 1929 - Rocafort (Valencia) 2012

When he was young, Andreu Alfaro studied at schools inspired by the Free Institution of Education and showed a special knack for drawing. His family, supporters of the Republican side, suffered reprisals after the Spanish Civil War, which prevented him from studying at university. He had to work at the family’s butcher’s shop. He was therefore self-taught. He attended art exhibitions whenever he could, befriended Valencian artists in the mid-1950s and returned to his former hobby, drawing. He was friends with artists including Joaquín Michavila, Nassio Bayarri, Monjalés and Salvador Soria, and with the critic Vicente Aguilera Cerni, who particularly influenced his early work. He also met Joan Fuster, the writer from Valencia who introduced him to political Valencianism. 

In 1957, his first solo shows were held at two then flagship venues in Valencian culture: the Sala Mateu in Valencia and La Decoradora in Alicante. In 1958, he travelled to the Brussels World Fair, where he visited the ‘50 Years of Modern Art’ exhibition. Struck by the work of the artists of the contemporary vanguard, he started to work on constructivist sculptures using tin and wire on his return to Valencia. He joined the Parpalló group, founded by Doro Balaguer, Eusebio Sempere and Mojalés. He met sculptor Jorge Oteiza, who was to have a considerable influence on him, and embarked on working with cut and bent sheet metal and industrial processes. In the following years, he held many exhibitions which he combined with his job as an advertising designer and with his involvement in the family business. In 1959, he finished his first monumental work and moved on to a long series of nearly one hundred large sculptures in the streets of Spain, Germany and the United States, with the idea that works of art must be part of the public space.

Alfaro won the National Award for Plastic Arts (1981), the Rei Jaume I Award from the Autonomous Government of Valencia (1980), the Creu de Sant Jordi Award from the Autonomous Government of Catalonia (1982) and the Alfons Roig Award from the Provincial Council of Valencia (1991). He took part in the Venice Biennale in 1966, 1976 and 1995; he put on retrospective shows at the Velázquez Palace exhibition hall (Madrid, 1979), at the Valencia Institute of Modern Art (Valencia, 1991) and at the Josef Albers Museum (Bottrop, Germany, 2000), among others.

Isabel Tejeda

 
«Solidarity Art», Palau del Temple (Valencia, 1983).
Vv.Aa. Art Solidaritat, València, Generalitat Valenciana, 1983. Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 2.