Fundaci贸 Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
7th FIGURATIVAS PAINTING AND SCULPTURE COMPETITION
Members of the Jury ’06. Juan Bautista Nieto, Antonio Zambrana, Sam Benady, José Manuel Infiesta, Soledad Fernández, Jesús Tablate, Anthony Pontone y Eduardo Naranjo.
Members of the Jury ‘07 Sam Benady, Manuel Parralo,Santiago Sánchez, Tomás Paredes, José Manuel Infiesta, Antonio López, Guillermo Muñoz Vera, Javier Rubio, Leandro Navarro, Antonio Zambrana y Eduardo Naranjo.
Members of the Jury ‘08 The jury displaying the works presented one at a time.
After 30 years devoted to art as a collector, prominent patron and editor, architect José Manuel Infiesta established the Foundation of the Arts and the Artists in 2005, a nonprofitable private initiative, which claims the recognition of figurative art in the contemporary artistic context. The Foundation was presented to society in 2006 with the notice of the First Figurative Painting Competition, which was based with the important amount of 120,000 euros in prizes placing it among the most important competitions at European level. This, in turn, prompted the involvement of more than 900 artists and the selection of 30 works that revealed the presence of figuration in the contemporary artistic scenario. The following calls for applications introduced innovations such as the expanding of the contest to the discipline of sculpture and the restructuring of the jury, comprised of important personalites of the art world that supported the initiative providing prestige and consolidation to the competition. The initiative to convene a figurative painting and sculpture competition has been marked as bold and daring, not only for the subject matter but for emerging during the time where the proliferation of contests and art centres identified the creation of contemporary artists with abstract and experimental practices. Therefore, this initiative responds to the need, evident today, to reverse current trends in contemporary art and to recognize that those expressions already lack novelty.
Members of the Painting Jury ‘09 Javier Rubio, Tomás Paredes, Manuel Parralo, José Manuel Infiesta, Antonio Zambrana, Antonio López, Eduardo Naranjo y Santiago S. Echeberria.
The Foundation has succeeded in creating an innovating tool in the world’s current culture, that contributes discussion in the paths of contemporaneity, and that the cause of argument is not a consequence of the most experimental work but, precisely, to the return of
Fundació Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
1. 1. Figurativas Painting and Sculpture Competition
Members of the Painting Jury ‘08 Tomás Paredes, Antonio Zambrana, Sam Benady, Santiago S. Echeberria, José Manuel Infiesta, Leandro Navarro, Javier Rubio, Antonio López, Manuel Parralo y Eduardo Naranjo.
Members of the Sculpture Jury ‘08 Julio López, Luisa Granero, Fernando Capa, José Manuel Infiesta, Eduard Durán y Joé Marín Medina.
2. 2. A History of Seven Years
Prize-giving ceremony, Casa de la Moneda, 2010
Celebration and prize-giving ceremony at the Thyssen Museum hall, (October 2007, Madrid)
One of the distinct features of this competition is the importance of its prize-giving ceremony. The awards ceremony is conceived as a great celebration for all the artists, selected and non-selected, to get to know each other, to exchange views, and to celebrate the success of contemporary figurative art. The first two editions the event was held in the central hall of the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, where more than 500 attendees were able to see the winning artworks. The third and fourth editions were held at the amphitheater and Gardens of Casa América in Madrid. The last two editions the ceremony has moved to the Casa de la Moneda Museum in Madrid. This year, the event will take place in the exhibition halls of the European Museum for Modern Art (MEAM) in Barcelona.
Fundació Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
the eternal origins of Art, to the concept of beauty, to the kingdom of feelings, to the dominance of expressive authenticity and to the cult of genius.
Prize-giving ceremony of Figurativas of 1st Figurativas Painting and Sculpture Competition at Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, October 2006. Pictures of the first award-giving ceremony in which Carlos Saura Riaza received the first prize. The event was attended by the Jury members as well as the presence and support of important personalities of the communications world.
Exhibition at Casa de la Moneda in 2011.
Celebration and prize-giving ceremony at Casa América in 2008.
Fran Daurel’s Foundation brings significant level of visitors, positioning itself among one of the most visited cultural destinations in Barcelona. Thanks to the collaboration between both Foundations the exhibition assembling was possible to be visited from 2007 to 2010.
Fundació Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
After the awards ceremony, the artworks are presented in an exhibition space in response to the needs to bring to the public’s attention the work of a new generation of artists that use figurative language as a form of expression. This enabled to visit the artworks from 2006, in centres like “Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona” (CCCB) or Fran Daurel Foundation, one of the most visited spaces in the city of Barcelona. Or in Seville, where the exhibition found acceptance in Casa de la Provincia, receiving public acclaim.
3. Figurativas 2013 Following the six previous editions, the Foundation takes a twist to the competition in this new year, giving commitment to its internationalisation. Without compromising the promotion of the Spanish artists, we understand that the exchange of thoughts, opinions and sensitivities among the artists around the world is a significant part of the phenomenon of creativity. 3.1- As far as artists are concerned, for which the competition is addressed: We have intensified fluid communications with important collective groups on a global basis, that allow us to position ourselves effectively and be heard all over the world. We have therefore had direct relations with members, students, teachers and followers of groups such as Art Renewal Center (USA), Florence Academy of Art (Italy), Grand Central Academy of Art of New York, ArteLibre, Realismo en la Pintura, Resistencia Realista and so on. 3.2.- As far as jury members are concerned, we have shifted the focus on the composition itself in two basic orientations: 3.2.1.- Giving importance to the painting artists themselves above other personalities, so that five out of the eight members of the jury are painters with a renowned pictorical career and, regardless of other members such as gallery owners, art critics, authorities, etc. 3.2.2.- Searching amongst jury member artists those with greater ease in the current situation on the international contemporary arts scene. This way, we have successfully given to the jury the indisputable authority which provides that their members are the most recognized on the contemporary arts scene.
Fundaci贸 Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
And this internationalization process has focused on two basic orientations:
4. 4. Total of Artworks participating in the competition 2013
SCULPTURE 2013 COUNTRY
ARTISTS
COUNTRY
ARTISTS
COUNTRY
ARTISTS
Spain Colombia Germany Argentina Canadá Mexico Italy France Austria Belgium Bulgary Holland Poland Romania Chile
256 26 22 21 13 12 11 9 6 5 5 5 5 5 4
China Costa Rica Australia Cuba Ecuador Hungary Portugal Serbia Brazil Egypt Indonesia Nigeria Peru Switzerland Turkey
4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Ukraine Armenia Scotland Ireland Israel Latvia Lithuania Malaysia Monaco Montenegro Sweden Thailand Uganda Uruguay Venezuela
2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
TOTAL
492
Fundació Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
The deadline for submitting artworks for 7th Competition was closed on May 31th through digital means, with a total of 2,268 painting and sculpture works, drawn from over 80 countries from all five continents. The distribution of the provenance of the artists are shown in the tables annexed. The Jury’s deliberation to determine the first prize, honorable mentions, and selected and pre-selected lists take place during the last week of July of 2013. The awards ceremony and exhibition of the selected artworks take place during the months of October and November 2013, with the presentation of the catalogue.
COUNTRY
ARTISTS
COUNTRY
ARTISTS
COUNTRY
ARTISTS
Spain USA Italy France Mexico Argentina Portugal Indonesia Germany Colombia Poland Rumania England Russia Ukraine Chile Hungry Perú Venezuela Brasil Canadá Cuba Lithuania Serbia Turkey Holland Austria
968 111 84 62 59 39 27 26 23 23 22 19 15 15 15 14 13 12 12 11 10 10 10 10 9 8 1
Switzerland Costa Rica Finland Hong Kong Dominican Rep. Uruguay Armenia Bulgary China Greece India Irán Croatia Ecuador Sweden Ghana Morroco New Zeland Puerto Rico Scotland Slovenia Thailand Taiwán Norway Australia Belgium
7 6 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2
Denmark Guatemala Israel Kazajstan Kenya Macedonia Andorra Belarus Chipre El Salvador Estonia Gambia Iceland Ireland Malaysia Montenegro Oman Pakistan Paraguay Czech Republic South Africa Georgia Japan Sri Lanka Latvia Philippines
2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
TOTAL
1776
Fundació Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
PAINTING 2013
5. 5. The Jury Painting of this 7th Competition Gottfried Helnwein Painter Odd Nerdrum Painter Jacob Collins Painter and Founder of the Grand Central Academy, NY.
Eduardo Naranjo Painter Tom谩s Paredes Art Critic Santiago S谩nchez Echeberria Gallery Owner Jose Manuel Infiesta Director of MEAM and art collectionist
Gottfried Helnwein - Painter
(www.helnwein.com)
Helnwein was born in Vienna in 1948, within the context of a total reconstruction, which was both architectural and cultural, of what was collapsed during the Second World War. He studied at the University of Plastic Arts in Vienna, where he was awarded the Master Class prize. He have also received the Kardinal-Konig and the Theodor-Korner award. In addition to his extensive work in painting and photography, he has been devoted to drawing and sculpture, he has conducted a number of performances, and has worked as costume designer and set scenographer for ballet and opera. Helnwein is a fierce defender of the sense of Art. In his works you can see his concern to portray their times, effort that comes from his interest to understand the social and political changes happening today.
Fundaci贸 Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
Antonio L贸pez Painter
His artworks are renowned worldwide, because of his technical resources as well as his controversial nature of many of them. Today he lives in Los Angeles and Ireland. His watercolour paintings of children with horrible scars, drawings over manipulated photographs of blood-soaken children and scenes mixing Catholic iconography with national-socialist aesthetic. He is currently exhibing his work at a grand exhibition organized by the Albertina Museum in Vienna. (www.nerdrummuseum.com)
Nerdrum is a Norwegian figurative painting artist born on April 8th 1944. His themes and style are based on narrative and anecdote, which places him in direct conflict with abstract and conceptual art considered acceptable by many people in his native Norway. Nerdrum is a great painter of our time who dared to make war upon modernity. His colossal artworks are considered to be reactionary by many critics. To others, Nerdrum is the spokesperson of the most valuable renaissance in art. “The characters that I paint are becoming decreasingly subject to our idea of security. They inhabit a world broader than ours. Everything that surrounds them lack of a name. They live in a world comprised of everything that in our world seem to be deflected. They look for different answers.”These are men and women who have lost all the words and, nevertheless, or precisely for this reason, have an entire universe to tell us. Foreign beings in a world in which they live, mutilated, solitary individuals. These persons seem to be living in a different time, but whose roughening, frankness and singularity are embedded definetely in the present…as much as in the past as in a possible future. Because Nerdrum doesn’t talk about the contingent in man, but about what remains: the fear, the solitude, the joy and the wonder before the starry sky. Feelings that remain the same today as those a hundred thousand years ago. He is currently exhibing his artwork at the Nerdrum Museum in Oslo, the Forum Gallery in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
Fundació Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
Odd Nerdrum - Painter
Jacob Collins - Painter
(www.jacobcollinspaintings.com)
Collins, born in New York in 1964, he is a great master of contemporary renaissance of classical painting.
During the nineties, he founded the “Water Street Atelier” where he has trained dozens of artists. He is the director of the Grand Central Academy of Art in New York, considered one of the best schools of classic art in the world. Jacob’s style is considered classic realism and his theme is based on the figure, the portrait, dead nature and landscape.
Antonio López - Painter
(www.antoniolopezgarcia.blogspot.com.es)
Born in 1936, Antonio López is one of the best representatives of the Spanish contemporary realism. His work is characterised by a researching sense of reality and he is considered the father of Madrid’s hyper-realist school. In the year 1985 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award and in 1993 he was appointed as member of the Royal Academy of San Fernando. He paints very sluggishly, thoughtfully, searching for the essence of the object represented. His paintings are developed through several years, retouching them in
Fundació Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
Looking his pieces of work one remains in ecstasy while our eyes run through colors, pleasant environments, the soft contours of his figures and nude, or while sampling the finest expressive intensity of his portraits.
countless occasions until he considers they are definetely completed. The temporality and deterioration of the material are the key notes that defines his style. Antonio López is an artist that seeks, within the reality that surrounds him, every aspect of life treated with an extreme eye for detail as exemplified by his work titled “Bathroom”. Filmmaker Víctor Erice shot in 1992 “The Quince Tree Sun”, which includes the creative process of the artist while painting a quince tree in the courtyard of his home.
Eduardo Naranjo - Pintor
(www.pintoreduardonaranjo.com)
He started at an early stage, superbly endowed for art, imaginative artist Eduardo Naranjo (Monesterio-Badajoz-, 1944), deserves serious consideration to be our highest representative of the current dreamlike magic realism, never exempt from enormous verism, beauty and poetry. It is with good reason that, in 1979 and after his much-talked-about exhibition in Biosca, members related with our culture elected him as “Best Plastic Artist in b&w of the Year”, and his retrospective in the Centro Cultural de la Villa Madrileña received more than two hundred and fifty thousand attendees of various nationalities. An artist independently of current fashions with very few personal expositions – instead he was present in countless collective exhibitions alongside other great contemporary artists-, is, however, one of the most prestigious and sought after painters and his artwork is recognized around the world.
Fundació Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
The work of this extraordinary artist it has been admired at a grand exhibition organized by Thyssen Museum and the Sorigué’s Foundation. He is currently presenting his artwork in the art scene of Tokyo.
Tomás Paredes - Art Critic
He graduated in Law, Art History and Ancient History from the UCM University, member of the Union of Journalists (Madrid), contributor to numerous publications about art through the Spanish territory; speaker and round table moderator. Curator and installer of exhibitions, among other activities he is also a distinguised anthologist and careful prologuist. Tomás Paredes has published more than ten thousand articles in several newspapers and specialist magazines in art, and he is also a regular contributor to the newspaper “La Vanguardia” of Barcelona about the art market. He has given over two hundred speeches in Spain, France, Switzerland and Portugal.
Santiago Sánchez Echeberría - Gallery Owner Born in San Sebastián in the year 1969, Santiago Sánchez Echeberría is the director of an art gallery in Madrid which promotes realism, seeking to establish figurative art through the variety of styles of young painters that have now reached an advanced stage of artistic maturity and that had already had their work exhibited at important international art galleries.
Fundació Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
Tomás Paredes, born in Granada in 1946, is an art critic, and he is currently presiding the Madrid Association of Art Critics as well as the Spanish Association of Art Critics.
Born in Barcelona in 1949, is president of the Foundation of the Arts and the Artists and director of the European Museum for Modern Art. A professional architect in addition to writer, editor and art collector. His work has received unanimous praise, both in a technical and aesthetical way. With this initiative, he has done something really valuable: counteract from the private effort the great shortcomings of the art’s official world in Spain. His special attraction towards the classical works, but with a great deal of admiration to the most contemporary figurative art, has spurred him on to start the Foundation of the Arts and the Artists in 2005. In 2011, launches the MEAM (European Museum of Modern Art) in Barcelona (www.meam. es) opening its doors with a permanent collection “Figurative Contemporary Art of XXIst Century”, a unique painting and sculpture collection from contemporary figurative artists.
Fundació Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
Jose Manuel Infiesta - Architecht (www.infiesta.es)
6. Spaces
The European Museum for Modern Art is the first museum to exclusively display and promote contemporary figurative art. It is part of the Foundation of the Arts and the Artists, whose main goal is to spread and promote the Figurative Art from the 20th and 21st century. Very close to Barcelona Academy of Art’s philosophy, MEAM aims to find a contemporary language to move forward into this new century, while never rejecting its tradition. MEAM is currently located in Palau Gomis, an old palace from the 18th century built by a merchant called Gomis in 1792, in El Born district, Barcelona. An old part town oozing with culture. An area that has brought together tradition and modernity and has become a must- see for any tourist interested in the museums and monuments of Barcelona. MEAM sets itself apart from other contemporary art museums, since it supports those artists of figurative art. Usually, these works can not be found in other museums, foundations or institutions centered around abstractions, since their idea of contemporaneity revolves around experimentation, abstraction, videoart, etc. The museum houses an extend collection of contemporary paintings and sculptures, with 230 works created in the 21st by living artists.
Fundació Privada de les Arts y els Artistes
The European Museum for Modern Art (MEAM).