Urban - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Urban

Fuente, Iñaki de la

Bilbao, 15/05/1954

Oil on paper stuck to panel

159 x 152 cm

IÑAKI / DE LA FUENTE (on the lower left side)

1987

Late 20th century

87/158

Donated by Mr and Mrs Pedrosa Pérez in 1987

In Urban the mysterious and the crepuscular become palpable in a dark palette of ochre, black and ruddy tones. The dense, impastoed material of the paint acquires autonomy, revealing the underlying figurations. Even the paper support, with spontaneous folds and superpositions, is involved in the materiality of the whole. Through frenetic brushstrokes and disorder in the expanding forms the artist makes an impenetrable space in constant change, which one can only access via the human faces that leap out from the morass. The act of painting has become the great, the only protagonist, the true work.

Retaining his initial Expressionism, De la Fuente has developed towards greater simplification in the play of forms and figures that make up the paint surface. In his latest orderly, suggestive works, he seeks to capture the experiences and feelings of his artistic career and personal life. [Arantxa Pereda]

Selected bibliography

  • Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. p. 187.
  • Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. p. 187.
  • Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. p. 187, n° cat. 106.
  • Viar, Javier. Historia del arte vasco : de la Guerra Civil a nuestros días, 1936-2016. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2017. pp. 637-638, il.
  • Después del 68 : arte y prácticas artísticas en el País Vasco, 1968-2018 [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. p. 188, il.