Portrait of an Armed Gudari called Odysseus - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Portrait of an Armed Gudari called Odysseus

Oteiza, Jorge

Orio, Gipuzkoa, 21/10/1908-San Sebastián, 09/04/2003

Steel

44.5 x 50.5 x 53.8 cm

TZA (with the letters intertwined at the front)

1975-1979

Last quarter of the 20th century

82/313

Acquired in 1982

In 1948 Oteiza returned from Latin America, where he had lived since 1935, and from then on his oeuvre can be divided into two clear periods: his figurative work, focused on expressively dynamic human representations, characterised by the emptying of the body or the presence of perforations, and his abstract work, related to spatialism and Russian Constructivism, betraying the influence of Malevich, as the artist himself revealed. Oteiza was also a theoretician of Basque culture. He spread his thoughts in various articles and books such as Quousque tandem...! (1963), which proved influential for several generations of artists and writers.

Portrait of an Armed Gudari [Basque Soldier] Called Odysseus, though made in 1975, is related to works produced between 1955 and 1958, year in which Oteiza declared he was giving up sculpture, a promise he didn't keep. These works centred on the 1957 edition of the Biennial of São Paulo where he was awarded the Grand Prix for sculpture. Rigorous, immaterial and precisely beautiful, these geometric sculptures derive from those that Chillida made between 1951 and 1954 during his first spatialist phase, which Oteiza developed into his so-called "metaphysical boxes". Oteiza's work is related to that of Nicholson, Jacobsen, Mortensen and other artists active in the field of geometric abstraction during World War II and the years after. As a counter-point to his series devoted to empty or void space he also made geometric sculpture in solid stone. [Javier Viar]

Selected bibliography

  • Oteiza : propósito experimental [Cat. exp.]. Madrid, Fundación Caja de Pensiones, 1988. p. 206, n° cat. 349.
  • Nosotros los vascos : arte V : vanguardias en arte, arquitectura y cine. Donostia-San Sebastián, Lur, 1994. p. 36.
  • De Picasso a Bacon : arte contemporáneo en las colecciones del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Segovia, Museo de Arte Contemporánea Esteban Vicente, 1999. pp. 116-117.
  • Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. pp. 180-181.
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. pp. 180-181.
  • Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. pp. 180-181.
  • En transición [Cat. exp.]. Barcelona, Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona, 2007. p. 160.
  • Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 121-123.
  • Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. pp. 121-123.
  • Viar Olloqui, Javier. "Palazuelo eta euskal artea : Irudia margolanean oinarritutako hausnarketak = Palazuelo y el arte vasco : reflexiones a partir de Imagen = Palazuelo and the basque art : Thoughts on Image", B'07 : Buletina = Boletín = Bulletin, n° 3. 2008. pp. 290-291.
  • Laboratorios 70 : poéticas, políticas y crisis de la modernidad en el contexto vasco de los setenta. Bilbao, Sala Rekalde Erakustaretoa, 2009. p.17.
  • Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. pp. 180-181, n° cat. 128b.
  • Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. pp. 180-181, n° cat. 128b.
  • Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 121-122, n° cat. 64c.
  • Bozal, Valeriano. Historia de la pintura y la escultura del siglo XX en España, 1940-2010. Madrid, Machado Libros, 2013. p. 141, il.
  • Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. pp. 180-181.
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. pp. 180-181.
  • Badiola, Txomin. Oteiza : catálogo razonado de escultura. Alzuza, Navarra ; San Sebastián, Fundación Museo Jorge Oteiza Fundazio Museoa ; Nerea, 2015. 2 v. p. 846, n° cat. CRIO 8.3.33.001.
  • Badiola, Txomin. Oteiza : eskultura katalogo arrazoitua. Alzuza, Navarra ; San Sebastián, Fundación Museo Jorge Oteiza Fundazio Museoa ; Nerea, 2015. 2 v. p. 846, n° cat. CRIO 8.3.33.001.
  • Badiola, Txomin. Oteiza : catalogue raisonné of sculpture. Alzuza, Navarra ; San Sebastián, Fundación Museo Jorge Oteiza Fundazio Museoa ; Nerea, 2015. 2 v. p. 846, n° cat. CRIO 8.3.33.001.
  • Maisuak : Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2016. pp. 104-105, il.
  • Masters : Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2016. pp. 104-105, il.
  • Maestros : Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao . Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2016. pp. 104-105, il.
  • Maîtres : Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bilbao. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2016. pp. 104-105, il.
  • Después del 68 : arte y prácticas artísticas en el País Vasco, 1968-2018 [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. p. 340.