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Esteban de la FozBlue Abstraction Oil on canvas Esteban de la Foz 1996 Cantabria Spain1996
1996
$6,610.98
£4,891.30
€5,490
CA$9,140.86
A$10,035.52
CHF 5,235.55
MX$121,443.82
NOK 65,619.55
SEK 61,830.87
DKK 41,801.01
About the Item
An exceptional large-format work by Esteban de la Foz, undoubtedly the most representative and influential figure in abstract art in Cantabria. Titled "Puerile Islands" and dated 1996, this work falls within the artist's period of experimentation and maturity, characterized by dynamic compositions and gestural, intuitive brushstrokes. During this period, he also introduced elements inspired by nature and the landscape, with series such as "Islands and Coasts," to which this work belongs.
He employs a sober color palette, with grayish tones in which the black, blue, and greenish brushstrokes stand out, without much contrast. The artist plays with textures through highly material brushstrokes, laden with pigment, leaving a relief on the canvas suggested by each of his strokes. He often made his own pigments so he could manipulate their density and play with how they would act on the support. It is a painting with very defined strokes that allows the viewer to be transported to the creative process of the piece, intuiting its movements and rhythm.
Esteban Pérez de la Foz (Santander, 1928-2007)
Esteban de la Foz is the artistic name of Esteban Pérez de la Foz Fernández, an abstract painter born in Santander on April 4, 1928. He showed an early inclination toward art. His first contacts with drawing and painting were self-taught, without appropriate academic training. His style evolved steadily and consistently throughout his career, reflecting his artistic restlessness and openness to contemporary trends. Up to five stages can be identified in his work, each with its own characteristics:
The first stage took place around the 1950s, his early years, characterized by late Cubist figuration and Neo-Cubism, with urban landscapes and subjective portraits rendered with strong lines and faceted planes. Initially, the most influential painters he devoted to were Velázquez and Goya, until he became acquainted with the work of his fellow countryman, Pancho Cossío. It was then that he decided to make a clean slate. He held his first exhibition at the Galería Sur in Santander in 1954. He obtained a scholarship from the Ministry of Education (1957) and settled in Paris, at which point he began to develop an expressionism linked to an underlying Cubism. His color palette during this period is sober, reflecting a structured and rational vision of reality, and experimenting with materials and textures.
His second period (late 1950s and 1960s) is characterized by the influence of his time in Paris and his training at the École du Louvre and the Atelier de la Grande Chaumière. His work begins to evolve toward a more abstract formal synthesis. He becomes interested in orderly composition and the interplay of impasto. His constructivist cityscapes evolved toward large fields of color and geometric shapes, anticipating his transition to abstraction.
In his third phase (1960s and 1970s), marked by abstract expressionism and social criticism, his painting took on a much more expressive character, with increasingly broad brushstrokes and vibrant colors. Many of his works from this period are charged with social criticism or reflect strong existentialist content.
The 1980s and 1990s are considered his period of experimentation and maturity. During this period, some of his works bordered on minimalism, without losing expressiveness, through dynamic compositions and motifs inspired by nature and the landscape. After more than ten years of working in total abstraction, in 1985, influenced by American Abstract Expressionism and German Neo-Expressionism, he developed a series of paintings that were abstract in form, yet somehow maintained figuration with titles, which served to "guide" the viewer by indicating what they should see. This is precisely what happens with "Puerile Islands."
His fifth and final period (1990s and early 2000s) represents the culmination of his style and the path toward abstraction. He achieved a synthetic expressionism, with rich brushwork and intense, yet always balanced, colors. A musical influence is evident in the rhythm and structure of his later works. His preferred color palette is sober; large patches of intense color are rarely found in his works, and they are always used as a means to provide a greater dramatic element. In his latest exhibitions, he maintains his signature style: a dialogue between form, color, and emotion, with a strong mastery of oil paint and composition.
With more than 40 solo and group exhibitions, he has positioned himself as an essential artist of contemporary Spanish art. His career describes a path from early informalism to abstraction. Around 1970, he found his most personal style, characterized by the total liberation of figuration, masterfully experimenting with the support and the pigments.
Datos técnicos
Técnica sobre soporte: Óleo sobre lienzo
Título de la obra: “Islas pueriles”
Autor: Esteban de la Foz
Firmado en la esquina inferior derecha y en el reverso
Estilo: Abstracción
Año: 1996
País de origen: Cantabria, España
En buen estado de acuerdo a su antigüedad y uso
Dimensiones: 165 x 155 cm.
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