19 june, 2007 - 15 october, 2007 /

Sabatini Building, Floor 1

Exhibition view. Luis Gordillo. Tropical Iceberg, 2007 — Exhibition view. *Luis Gordillo. Tropical Iceberg*, 2007

Luis Gordillo (Seville, 1934) begins to become known on the national art scene in the Sixties when he establishes himself as one of the pioneers in the restoration of the treatment of figuration and the use of colour, inventing an artistic language that becomes a reference to a later generation of artists. His aesthetic proposal questions itself on the reflection of the subject, the relevance of the process faced with the product and the theory of perception. His work and creative process define an open artistic journey, leaving traces of a continuous challenge with which he seeks clarity in the expression of his inner tensions.

Gordillo's artistic career begins in the mid-fifties. After graduating in Law and attending the School of Fine Arts in Seville, he spends short periods living in Paris, where he widens his knowledge of Informalism and Geometric Art. Upon leaving Paris his aesthetic stance and his artistic vocation enters into crisis. When he begins painting again in 1963, it is on a Pop aesthetic level, from which he can be considered a pioneer in Spain, and along with the geometric influence and Informalism this initial synthesis phase is concluded.

In the late sixties, critics situate him in Madrid’s New Figuration group, painters from a younger generation, in one of whom he has a clear influence and which raises the possibility of opening an outlet into Spanish Informalism. His pieces are filled with colour and irony. Gordillo’s eagerness to experiment in the field of painting leads him to seek new ways of expression through photography and image reproduction methods coming from all possible sources and of introducing new digital technologies, resulting in an art of incredible formal variety. Recent creations, close to Postmodern Abstraction and indebted to figuration from before, constitute a new step in his fertile career.

Gordillo’s experimentation is born from a constant reflection. Because of his decisive contribution to the shaping of the Spanish avant-garde and because of his long and consistent career, Gordillo has earned the Velázquez Prize 2007, recognition that expands with this retrospective. The exhibition has been designed in a space that is alive, a dynamic field of actions and reactions between the pieces, in which the artist himself has been deeply involved and proposes an unorthodox exhibition which stages narrative tension characteristic of his career.