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Hello everyone, in this presentation I'm going to be talking about Lola, a painting by Antonio

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Saura. I'm going to be talking also about this painter in death.

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The Spanish painter Antonio Saura was considered one of the most important avant-garde painters

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of his time, inspired by Francisco de Goya and Diego Velázquez. He is best known for

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his paintings that pay homage to Spain's cultural heritage. Moreover, this artist began

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making art at the age of 17, producing dreamlike landscapes in the style of Surrealism. Ten

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years later, in 1957, he co-founded the El Paso Group, a collective of painters, sculptors

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and art critics who sought to revive Spanish art production in the wake of the Spanish

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Civil War and World War II. In the 50s and 60s, he made a series of paintings, in which

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this painting is included, of a crucifixion scene that recalled Velázquez's own 1632

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composition at the Prado Museum. Saura's limited palette constrained black brushstrokes

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and gruesome subject matter that also evoke Pablo Picasso's work of the late 30s, especially

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the monochromatic Guernica. In addition, in this time he had his first solo exhibition

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at the Rodolphe Stadler Gallery in Paris, where he regularly exhibited throughout his

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life. In 1971, he temporarily abandoned painting on canvas to devote himself to writing, drawing

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and painting on paper. But it wasn't until 1977 when Saura began publishing his writings

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and he created several stage designs for the theatre, ballet and opera, thanks to

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the collaboration with his brother, the film director, Carlos Saura. From 1983 to his death

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in 1998, he revisited all of his themes and figures.