GENESIS OF ABSTRACTION IN THE MURALS OF JORGE OTEIZA

With this exhibition, the Museo Universidad de Navarra aims to deepen the analysis of Jorge Oteiza's murals in its collection: Homenaje a Bach and Elías y su carro de fuego (Homage to Bach and Elías and his chariot of fire). The exhibition will compare these murals with others by the artist and with other pieces loaned by the Jorge Oteiza Museum Foundation. These pieces are photographs, plaster and metal sketches and works from the chalk laboratory. In this way it will be analyzed how Oteiza reached abstraction through the production of the murals.

JORGE OTEIZA (Orio, 1908 - San Sebastián, 2003) began his sculptural career in the late 1920's. After a long stay in South America between 1934 and 1948, he settled in the Basque Country, where he spent the rest of his career: during this period he moved from the expressionism of the apostolate of the Basilica of Aránzazu to a completely abstract work, focused on the exploration of emptiness. A sample of this work is Experimental Purpose, the series that won him the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1957 and that meant his consecration as a sculptor. From then on, Oteiza will be a fundamental reference for sculpture in the Basque Country, not only for his work, but also for his role as an art theorist and political activist.