Underground Station in Holborn Street - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

Underground Station in Holborn Street

Morrás, Xabier

Pamplona, 28/01/1943

Photograph, metal plate, painted cement and board

170.2 x 115.2 cm

JAVIER MORRÁS (lower half on the right side)

1969

Third quarter of the 20th century

82/299

Acquired in 1982

In Underground Station in Holborn Street, Morrás concentrates an instant of life in the city of London, in a work that recreates an urban setting constructed with objective references and populated by anonymous figures. The cool colours and cutout photographic enlargements accentuate the dramatic nature of the work. The roughness of the pavement cement is revealed, as is the subtlety of a shining car, the underground station sign faithfully reproduced and the buildings rendered as miniatures. It comes as little surprise that Morrás has described his painting as "narrative, critical and autobiographical". (Silvia García Lusa)

Selected bibliography

Xabier Morrás 1968-1987 : lanak = trabajos = works [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1987. p. 27, (Con el título Underground in Holborn Street)..
Nosotros los vascos : arte V : vanguardias en arte, arquitectura y cine. Donostia-San Sebastián, Lur, 1994. p. 135.
Sanz Sanz, Rosa María; Fernández López, Alicia. "Pintores navarros contemporáneos en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao", Tercer Congreso General de Historia de Navarra. 20-23 septiembre 1994. pp. 8, 10, il.
Euskal artea eta artistak 60ko hamarkadan = Arte y Artistas Vascos en los años 60 [Cat. exp.]. Donostia-San Sebastián, Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundia = Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa, 1995. p. 328.
Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. p. 160.
Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. p. 160.
Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. p. 160, n° cat. 88.
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. 510-511, 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. pp. 170, 340, il.
Alzuri, Miriam ; González, Begoña ; Zugaza, Miguel. "Después del 68 : arte y prácticas artísticas en el País Vasco", eremuak #5. 2019. p. 63, il.