Venice - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Venice

Balerdi, Rafael

San Sebastian, 05/05/1934-Altea, Alicante, 11/03/1992

Oil on canvas

130 x 195 cm

Balerdi (bottom right hand corner)

1964-1972

Third quarter of the 20th century

07/408

Donated by Javier Viar in 2007

  • Starting from the forms that appeared spontaneously in the gestural fabric, he concentrated on a kind of formal creation not conducive to compositional unity, always based around tight organic or crystalline motifs, rendered in stained-glass colours of unusual violence. In the last works of the cycle, Balerdi examines each form minutely with Pointillist touches or lines, thickening the colour and making it lose volume and individuality. If Venice is the masterwork thrown up by this experience, in which the painter poured out his experiences over eight years. (Javier Viar)

Selected bibliography

  • Balerdi : la experiencia infinita = azkengabeko esperientzia [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao ; Donostia-San Sebastián, Rekalde Erakusketa Aretoa = Sala de Exposiciones Rekalde ; Koldo Mitxelena Erakusketaretoan = Sala de Exposiciones Koldo Mitxelena, 1993. pp. 441-442, 760, n° cat. 146.
  • 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. 45.
  • Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 149-151.
  • Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. pp. 149-151.
  • Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 149-151, n° cat. 83b.
  • 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. 224-225, 227, 304-305, il.
  • Bilboko Museoaren alfabetoa = El alfabeto del Museo de Bilbao = The alphabet of the Bilbao Museum = L'alphabet du Musée de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 213-215, 217-218, 221, n° cat. 119.
  • Viar, Javier. Hijos de la angustia. Bilbao, Muelle de Uribitarte, 2019. pp. 102, 132, 138-139, 144, 148, il.
  • Balerdi, 1934-1992 [Cat. exp.]. San Sebastián, Kutxa Fundazioa, 2017. pp. 26-27, 83, il.