The online collection and picture sale

After some solid in-house (perhaps in-studio is more apt) training, Vicente Larrea began in abstract art in 1966, the year he took part in the exhibitions organized by the Bizkaia-based Emen group of artists, submitting figurative works, via constructive, geometric sculptures, in straight and curved lines, that had little to do with his later work except for the tendency towards dynamic, almost Baroque structures, and for the surface modelling, as can be seen in the sketch for Homage to Kirikiño, the definitive version of which stands by the cemetery of Mañaria (province of Bizkaia). After some time spent alternating geometric with organic forms, occasionally in the same sculpture, he plumped for the organic, and his forms became increasingly complex and closed in, hiding the interior from view. [Javier Viar]

Selected bibliography

• Chillida, Balerdi, Larrea : Chillida, Balerdi, Larrea : três artistas em correlaçao [Cat. exp.]. Lisboa, Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, Centro de Arte Moderna José de Azeredo Perdigao, 1995. p. 59.
• Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 147-148.
• Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. p. 147.
• Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 147-148, n° cat. 82a.
• Viar, Javier. Hijos de la angustia. Bilbao, Muelle de Uribitarte, 2019. p. 67.