Antonio Saura

Opera Gallery London is delighted to present Antonio Saura: Painting at Will in collaboration with Succession Antonio Saura and the Fondation Archives Antonio Saura. Painting at Will, Saura’s first solo exhibition in London in 58 years, presents a selection of 27 important paintings, works on paper and canvas created between 1959-1997. These artworks explore enduring themes in Saura’s practice - from Crucifixions to Crowds as well as Imaginary Portraits – which acted as catalysts for existential and aesthetic developments. Spanning almost five decades, his career extended beyond painting into sculpture, writing, printmaking and theatre set design. The exhibition also highlights his Auto-da-fé series, a suite of paintings made using the torn-out covers of books that he originally created 40 years ago. This travelling exhibition, which debuted at Opera Gallery Madrid in 2023, pays homage to Saura’s artistic legacy 26 years after his death, while examining his innumerable contributions to the art historical canon in Spain and beyond.

Saura's oeuvre often centered around the human condition, contending with the themes of existential angst and the processing of pain. Through a sober palette of black and white, vigorous brushstrokes and distorted figures, he often returned to the motif of crucifixions, as well as crowd scenes, women, and nudes as a framework for expressing emotional turmoil. Another recurring motif in Saura’s body of work is ‘Goya’s Dog’, which references the Spanish master Francisco de Goya’s painting The Dog (circa 1819-1823). This work is often seen as a metaphor for the inevitability of death and a symbolic representation of futility, hopelessness, and isolation, and would have a strong, lasting influence on Saura’s practice.

Emerging from postwar Spain in the late 1950’s, Saura was a founding member of the El Paso Group alongside Manolo Millares and other artists. The collective’s identity was shaped by influences from Spanish heritage to the emergence of surrealism. They embraced informalism while challenging the conventions of traditional European aesthetics. The pictorial language of The El Paso Group reflected the underpinnings of their 1957 manifesto and not only laid the groundwork for, but also conceptualised the post-war avant-garde movement in Spain.

Marina Saura, daughter of Antonio Saura and representative of the Antonio Saura Foundation said: "It is a great honour to introduce my father’s work as well as the Antonio Saura Foundation’s activities in London through Opera Gallery. My father Antonio Saura was a Spanish artist born in 1930 who lived in Paris and whose foundation is settled in Switzerland since 2006. Since his death in 1998, the Antonio Saura Foundation Archives has organised many exhibitions and publications - including the catalogue raisonné of his oeuvre - but this is the first time an exhibition is presented in London in a very long time.”

Isabelle de La Bruyère, CEO of Opera Gallery Group said: "We are very proud to host an important new exhibition in London - 'Antonio Saura: Painting at Will’ - in collaboration with the Succession Antonio Saura and Fondation Archives Antonio Saura. Recognised as one of Spain’s most important Post-War artists, this is Saura's first solo show in London since 1966. The works presented, some of which for the first time in the United Kingdom, demonstrate his intricate knowledge and contribution to art history, as well as his empathy towards the human condition and fearless engagement with culture. It is a great honour for Opera Gallery to be working with his family and estate to present a testimonial show of Saura’s genius.”

Saura exhibited widely in Europe and the USA during the grey decades of censorship and dictatorship in his home country of Spain. His work appeared in two monographic shows at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York (1961, 1971) and retrospectives in many institutions, such as Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (1963), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1966), The ICA, London (1966), Musée Rath, Geneva, IVAM Valencia and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (1989-1990). The most recent grand retrospective took place at Kunstmuseum Bern (2012) and Museum Wiesbaden (2013). Among many prestigious awards, he received the Guggenheim New York International Prize (1960) and the Grand Prix des Arts de la Ville de Paris (1995), as well as the Carnegie Award for his contribution to documenta Kassel (1964).

Saura was also a writer. He published his first book in 1950 and regularly brought out new works right up to the end of his life in 1998. At the end of 2024, the Antonio Saura Foundation will publish a new book titled, On Picasso, which includes a series of essays dedicated to Pablo Picasso, most of which have never been printed in English.