Course de taureaux (Bullfight) - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Course de taureaux (Bullfight)

Fernández, Luis

Oviedo, 29/04/1900-Paris, 25/10/1973

Oil on canvas

195.2 x 130.5 cm

Fernández (bottom right hand corner); Louis Fernández (on the reverse)

1940

Second quarter of the 20th century

02/154

Acquired in 2002

Fernández, an artist whose oeuvre is rigorous and difficult to classify, for it cannot be assigned to any specific aesthetic label despite being indebted to Cubism, produced between 1939 and 1940 violent Expressionist works that included Surrealist elements and strove to convey his distress for and ondemnation of the Spanish Civil War. These works starkly contrast with the austerity of the rest of his painting.

Portrayed as a symbolic representation of the struggle between good and evil in reference to the civil conflict, Bullfight expresses its message in an almost demagogic way. Its format, size and theme make the work a heart-rending depiction of a bullfighting poster, painted with the dry simplicity and effectiveness of such images. In a barely suggested arena, a bull violently butts a defenceless horse that is injured in the chest and bleeding. This is not the only picture of this period that is indebted to Picasso's Guernica (Picasso was a friend and admirer of Fernández's), based on the same subject matter and presenting an almost identical symbolism. However, the references to sacrificial Christian iconography are also evident. The bullring is of course a Roman reference and appears once again as the circus in which so many Christians suffered martyrdom, although it could also represent, in a more abstract sense, the arena of existence in which life is tragically played out, the bare space portrayed by De Chirico and Bacon. Similarly, the horse's wound refers back to the spear wound suffered by Christ, hence the identification with the supreme victim of Christianity is immediate and grants a sacred impact to the scene, while the iconographical precedent of the death of the horse in the ring is to be found in Goya's Tauromachy, as well as in some of Picasso's paintings of the 1930s. (Javier Viar)

Selected bibliography

  • Luis Fernández. Madrid, Fundación Banco Exterior, 1984. p. 36. (Con el título Corrida de toros)
  • Dictionaire de la peinture espagnole et portugaise du Moyen Àge à nos jours. Paris, Larousse, 1989. p. 102. (Con el título Course de taureaux)
  • Luis Fernández : un eremita de la pintura [Cat. exp.]. Santander, Autoridad Portuaria, 1993. p. 184. (Con el título Corrida de toros)
  • Mas Hernández, Ana. Luis Fernández : primera catalogación de la obra. Madrid, Fundación Telefónica, 2000. pp. 190-191, n° cat. 64. (Con el título Course de taureaux)
  • Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. pp. 174-175.
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. pp. 174-175.
  • Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. pp. 174-175.
  • Adquisiciones 02/07 [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2007. pp. 54-55, n° cat. 18. (Con el título 'Course de taureaux')
  • Palacio Álvarez, Alfonso. "Luis Fernándezen lan bi Bilboko Arte Eder Museoan : Tête de taureau mort eta Course de taureaux = Dos obras de Luis Fernández en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : Tête de taureau mort y Course de taureaux = Two works by Luis Fernández at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : Tête de taureau mort and Course de taureaux", B'08 : Buletina = Boletín = Bulletin, n° 4. 2009. pp. 239-276.
  • Taurus : del mito al ritual [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2010. p. 345, n° cat. 198.
  • Palacio Álvarez, Alfonso. Luis Fernández : catálogo razonado de pinturas, dibujos, grabados y esculturas 1900-1973. Madrid, Fundación Azcona ; Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias, 2010. pp. 110, 477, n° cat. 120.
  • Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. pp. 174-175, n° cat. 124b.
  • Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. pp. 174-175, n° cat. 124b.
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. pp. 174-175.
  • Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. pp. 174-175.
  • Bottois, Ozvan. Tauromachie : de l'arène à la toile. Paris, Hazan, 2017. pp. 2010-211, il.
  • Bertrand Dorléac, Laurence (dir.) ; Paudrat, Jean-Louis (dir.). Jean Laude : ecrits sur l'art. Dijon, les Presses du réel, 2019. pp. 862, 882, il.