Andreu Alfaro

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Un món per a infants (1971), Madrid

Andreu Alfaro Hernández (born August 5, 1929 in Valencia ; † December 13, 2012 there ) was a Spanish sculptor and draftsman .

life and work

Alfaro began his artistic career as a painter and draftsman and had his first solo exhibitions in 1957 and 1958. Since 1958 he has devoted himself almost exclusively to sculpture.

In the sixties he started working with industrial materials like steel and aluminum, inspired by the work of Jorge Oteiza .

The seventies were characterized by a reduction of form to basic geometric structures, often in serial repetition, as is typical of minimalism . However, the apparent movement of the sculpture, which the viewer perceives when changing perspective, separates Alfaro from this art direction.

In the 1980s he experimented with materials as diverse as iron wire and marble. Like hardly any other contemporary artist, he dealt with the work of Goethe and created more than 100 works, including a cycle specially designed for the Goethe year with lithographs on the Roman elegies and abstract-figurative sculptures depicting the poet and his friends and portray contemporaries.

Characteristic of Alfaro's work is the interplay between (often circular or helical) surfaces on the one hand and lines on the other.

In 1995 Alfaro represented Spain with the painter Eduardo Arroyo at the 46th Venice Biennale .

Andreu Alfaro lived and worked in Valencia.

Awards and exhibition invitations

  • 1964 Gold Medal of the 5th International March Salon of Valencia
  • 1966 Invitation to the Venice Biennale (also 1976 and 1995)
  • 1967 Salon de la Jeune Sculpture (also 1968 and 1969)
  • 1980 Jaume I Prize
  • 1981 Spanish National Prize for Plastic Art
  • 1982 Creu de Ant Jordi Prize , Barcelona
  • 1991 Alfons Roig Prize for Sculpture from the City of Valencia
  • 1995 Tomás Francisco Prieto Prize from the Casa de la Moneda Foundation, Madrid

Works in public space

Monumental works by Andreu Alfaro can be found mainly in public spaces in Spain ( Madrid , Valencia ( Deutsche Schule Valencia ), Barcelona , Burgos and Terrassa ), but also in Mainz , Frankfurt am Main , Cologne , Nuremberg , Mülheim an der Ruhr and New York .

An important work, Lebenskraft , is in Mainz, the German twin city of Valencia, in front of the town hall on Jockel-Fuchs-Platz .

  • Lebenskraft (1979), in front of the Mainz town hall

  • Life Force (1979)

  • Life Force (1979)

  • Plaça de les Drassanes, Barcelona

  • Puerta de la Ilustración (1991), Madrid

  • Puerta de la Ilustración (1991), Madrid

  • Las Columnas de la UAB (1999), Barcelona

  • Symposion Urbanum (1971), Nuremberg

  • El Olimpo de Weimar (1990), Gallusanlage, Frankfurt am Main

literature

  • Vicente Jarque: Andreu Alfaro v.1 & 2: - catalog raisonné. IVAM Center Julio Gonzalez, 2001 (in English & Spanish)
  • Bottrop square: Andreu Alfaro. Ed. Stadt Bottrop, 2000. (Exhibition catalog, gives a good overview of the various phases in Alfaro's work)

Web links

Commons : Andreu Alfaro  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Alfaro, Andreu
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alfaro Hernández, Andreu (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish sculptor and draftsman
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Valencia
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 2012
Place of death Valencia