Mompó-Saura

From the black

MOMPÓ – SAURA
From the black

January 12-march 4, 2023

TEXT OF PRESENTATION

The black is the protagonist of this exhibition. As a symbol of a time or as a metaphor for a state of mind. Black as a (non) color, as the beginning and/or end of a painting. The essentiality and the drama and melt and culminate in the black. As the works of the artists from the exhibition now presents the gallery Fernández-Braso: Manuel H. Mompó (Valencia, 1927) and Antonio Saura (Huesca, 1930). Two artists who shared a life time and they agreed or not in the territory and in their circumstances. Two artists who extended their character and personality of their work as it extends the black on the white background. Two painters in the wire between the figurative and the abstract, and slightly chamfered towards the tragicomedy. A work −of Mompó− treated, narrative, extroverted, cheerful and chattering. A painting −the Saura− baroque, dark, vibrant and stunning.

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Biography

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. CONFLUENCES BETWEEN MOMPÓ AND SAURA

First exposure. The two artists in the year 1950. Mompó in the Room Mateu de Valencia and carlos Saura in the library Books of Zaragoza.

Paris. Mompó comes to Paris in 1951. Resides in the College of Spain in the Cité Universitaire. He meets Eduardo Chillida, Joan French, and Pablo Palazuelo. Saura will reside in Paris, in a first stage, between 1953 and 1955, working in the activities of the surrealist group.

Madrid. Saura outlined in the National Library of Madrid in 1956. Mompó in the halls of the University in 1958.

1957. While Mompó exposed individually in the gallery Clan of Madrid, Saura created the iconic group The Step, until he decides to dissolve it in 1960.

First international exhibitions. Saura exhibited at the Galerie Stadler in Paris in 1957. In 1958 at the Venice Biennale. In the Documenta 2 in Kassel in 1959. In the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York in 1961. Documenta 3 in Kassel in 1964. Documenta 6 in Kassel in 1977. Mompó exhibited at the Galerie towards a synthesis of Paris in 1961. In Mortimer Brandt Gallery in New York in 1962. At the XXXII Venice Biennale in 1962, as in 1968, in the thirty-fourth Venice Biennale.

Galería Juana Mordó. The two artists participating in the inaugural exhibition of the gallery in Madrid in 1964, in the same Neighborhood of Salamanca in Madrid, where he is now performed this exhibition.

Cities and residences. Mompó happens stays in Paris (1951), Rome (1954) and Rotterdam (1956). In Spain, its cities are Valencia, Madrid, Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca. Saura resides in Paris (between 1953 and 1955, and from 1967) and Havana (1970). In Spain: Huesca, Madrid and Cuenca.

Museum of Abstract Art in Cuenca. Part of that museum two emblematic works of the two artists. “Brigitte Bardot”, 1959, Saura; “Holy Week in Cuenca”, 1964, Mompó.

Reina Sofia Museum. Among the other works of Mompó, “People singing and dancing”, 1961; “Scenes from a street”, 1968. Saura was introduced in 2005, the exhibition “journeys of Antonio Saura”, an exhibition that brought together a total of 61 works of the legacy that the museum received in the concept of dation. In that same year, the Reina Sofia Museum and Fundación Telefónica published the catalogue raisonné of the work of Mompó.

 Writings. Saura published all kinds of writings. The essays, articles, and thoughts are included in the books “Fixity”, “Chronic” and “Viewer”. The pamphlet “Against the " Guernica” was published in 1981 and 2009. “Note book (ceremony of the time)” in 1992. If Saura wrote about almost everything to the margin of the painting, Mompó what was inside of it. “Writing on the boxes, he said Mompó− was a need to paint. It was elemental to express myself. Was suggesting, counting things as a painter and those things made my way with plastic forms and letters. Later the letters, and the sentences made disappeared, and today there are a few squiggles or lines that remember letters and that I serve to express experiences”.

Awards. Saura: Award Guggenheim, 1960, New York; Award Carnegie, 1962, Pennsylvania; Chevalier de lOrdre des Arts et les Lettres, 1981, France; Gold Medal of the Fine Arts, 1982, Spain. Mompó: Unesco Prize at the Venice Biennale of 1968; National Prize for Fine Arts, 1984, Spain.

Gallery Fernández-Braso. We have done 4 solo exhibitions of Mompó (1981, 1992, 2004, 2018). In ARCOmadrid 2019 shared a booth next to Guillermo Pérez Villalta. Saura exhibited individually at the gallery in 2013. In ARCOmadrid 2016 shared stand next to Miquel Navarro. In ARCOlisboa 2018 shared booth with Carmen Calvo

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Video presentation

Catalog

Selection of Work