Enrique Chagoya

LA PORTENTOSA VIDA DE LA MUERTE II, 2008

2008

Established Catalan painter Jordi Prat Pons is best known for his uniquely modern approach to the traditional still life. The works are characterized by bold use of color and manipul...

Taulé was born in 1945 in Sabadell, Barcelona. His father imparted the taste for painting to Antoni as a boy as the young artist watched him paint. After his primary studies, he began studying architecture in Barcelona and graduated in 1970. In 1965, he arrived in Paris and worked in architectural firms. It was Sartre's Paris, the construction of Unesco, the year of Le Corbusier's death and the end of Chandigarh, the French Cinematheque and Antonioni's films. Since the age of 14, he has never stopped painting and made his first personal exhibition in 1966 at the Academie de Belles Arts in Sabadell. Upon receiving his degree in architecture, he worked on the construction of l’Université autonome de Barcelone for a year. In 1971, he was asked to work on the development of a large shipyard on the small island of Formentera. There he met Laetitia Ney of Elchingen, who he would go on to marry. He devoted himself entirely to painting, and Formentera, like Paris, became one of his favorite places in both his life and to work. His first exhibition in Paris was in 1975 with Mathias Fels, presented to him by Hervé Télémaque—showing many paintings of his young daughter Djamilla, then three years old. The exhibition was titled, Espace hors temps (Space out of Time), with a foreword by Alain Jouffroy. In 1976, Taulé exhibited Contre-Jour (Against Day) at Fabien Boulakia on rue Bonaparte with a preface by Gérald Gassiot-Talabot and in Barcelona at the Aimé Maeght gallery—an exhibition visited by Joan Miró and Alexander Calder. In 1977, he exhibited at the Beaubourg gallery, with then associates Nahon and Trigano. In 1983, he met Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar, who wrote the novella Fin d’étape (End of Stage) for Taulé That same year, he was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) by Jack Lang. From 1983 onwards, Taulé worked for the theater, with The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov...

Color lithograph, Edition 30. Enrique Chagoya makes paintings and prints about the changing nature of culture. My artwork is a conceptual fusion of opposite cultural realities that I have experienced in my lifetime. I integrate diverse elements: from pre-Columbian mythology, western religious iconography and American popular culture. On the border of this print surrounding the image the following is written: An American tourist is approached by a Mexican kid holding a small human skull in his hand. He asks him: “Hey Mister, do you want to buy Pancho Villa...

Color lithograph, Edition 25. The artist describes this project: This work is a tribute to the recent Mayan immigrants from Southern Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras (as well as many...