My Friends Hennig and Turid - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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My Friends Hennig and Turid

Toja, Ricardo

Gordexola, Bizkaia, 23/08/1932-Plentzia, Bizkaia, 30/09/2012

Oil on canvas

66 x 82 cm

R. Toja (bottom left hand corner)

1964-1966

Third quarter of the 20th century

82/2143

Acquired in 1967

  • My Friends Hennig and Turid portrays the couple of the title in a sort of stylized caricature that seems cordial rather than aggressive, a quality emphasized by the pleasant landscape. Even so he uses Expressionist techniques to point up the facial and physical differences between the two subjects. The style of the painter's mature work, however, is based on a personal interpretation of Pointillism, executed in bright colours, and with effective deformations of perspective, using either the still life or the landscape as a motif: sometimes he uses both genres together. (Javier Viar)

Selected bibliography

  • Castañer López, Xesqui. "Iconografía de la mujer en los pintores vascos, siglos XIX y XX", Kobie : bellas artes, n° 2. 1984. p. 109.
  • Ricardo Toja [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Galería Illescas, 1966.
  • Bengoechea, Javier de. Catálogo de arte moderno y contemporáneo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya, 1980. p. 116. (Con el título Mis amigos Henning y Turid).
  • Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. p. 144.
  • Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. p. 144.
  • Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 144-145, n° cat. 79a.
  • 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. 161-162, il.