Luis Feito
Madrid, Spagna 1929-2021
Louis Feito was a Spanish painter. In 1957 he co-founded with M. Millares, R. Canogar and A. Saura the El Paso group, expressing, in their abstract language and exacerbated taste for pictorial matter, a profound and dramatic contestation as well as a formal, political one. Later, Feito focused his research on a luministic distribution of color, of spread in flat surfaces, in a refined and modulated play of chromatic passages.
Born October 31, 1929 in Madrid, Luis Feito began his training at the San Fernando High School of Fine Arts in Madrid, (now the Real Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando) in 1950. He worked briefly with a figurative style before discovering cubism. In 1954 Galería Buchholz in Madrid held his first solo exhibition with figurative works; after this exhibition Feito devoted himself exclusively to abstract art.
In 1953 he moved to Paris on a scholarship from the French government. After an exhibition at Galerie Arnaud in 1955, he left his teaching position at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts to settle permanently in Paris, where he resided for nearly 25 years. Here he had the opportunity to see the work of international contemporary painters such as Jean Fautrier, Hans Hartung, Serge Poliakoff, and Mark Rothko and to get to know several leading artists of Informal Art. During this period he began to use other materials, particularly sand, in his paintings.
During his stay in Paris, Feito maintained close contacts with the Spanish avant-garde and was one of the founding members of the Madrid-based El Paso group (1957-60), which emphasized an innovative anti-academic art by expressing, in its abstract language and exacerbated taste for pictorial material, a profound and dramatic contestation as well as a formal, political one. The El Paso manifesto highlights the group's goal of creating a new spiritual state in Spanish art, recognizing the need to act in the wake of a devastating civil war.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Feito's work was characterized by a palette contrasting blacks, grays, whites, and ochres. Later he introduced red into his works as a counterpoint, and then as the primary color in many compositions. Work from this period also shows his interest in materiality through the superimposition of smooth, full-bodied surfaces, which he achieves through the use of sand and heavy impasto.
In 1963 his works tend toward greater formal simplicity in which circular forms predominate, reflecting his interest in Japanese art.
From 1964-65 color dominates (Diptyque No. 563, 1966, Marseille, Cantini Museum), especially in the large canvases presented at the 1968 Venice Biennale: dense masses of bright colors are organized in simple rhythms with a kind of elemental force and often contrast with vast flat areas in monumental diptychs (Galerie Arnaud exhibition, 1968).
Throughout his career, Feito has continually explored the relationships between surface textures, light, color and form. In 1981 he moved to Montreal and then to New York in 1983, where he continued to live and work until the early 1990s.
Early international group exhibitions include the Venice Biennale (1956, 1958, 1960, 1968); São Paulo Biennale, Brazil (1957, 1963); Documenta, Kassel, West Germany (1959); Paris Biennale (1959); Guggenheim Museum (1960); Tate Gallery, London (1962); and Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh (1962).
Retrospectives include those at Galerie Arnaud, Paris (1961); Hamburg Museum, West Germany (1964); Musée d'art contemporain, Montreal (1968); and Museum of Contemporary Art (now National Museum of Art Reina Sofía), Madrid (1998). The Michelangelo Gallery in 1983 organized a solo exhibition of the artist's work, showing works created between 1960 and 1971.
After his election to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1998, the Reina Sofía Museum organized a traveling retrospective (2002). He was appointed Officer (1985) and Knight Commander (1993) of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. He received the international grand prize from the Asociación Española de Críticos de Arte (AECA) at the Arco art fair, Madrid (2002).
Museums:
Guggenheim Foundation, New York, USA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Museum of Modern Art Michigan, USA
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, USA
Baltimore Museum, Baltimore, USA
Seattle Museum, Seattle, USA
Houston Museum, Houston, USA
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Spain
Museum of Abstract Art, Cuenca, Spain
Fundacion Juan March, Madrid, Spain - Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid Spain
Ateneum Meuseum, Helsinki, Finland
Royal Museums, Belgium
Museum of Modern Art, Rome, Italy
Lisson Museum, Italy
Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museum of Fine Art, Montreal, Canada
Toronto Art Museum, Toronto, Canada
National Museum, Ottawa, Canada
Museum of Modern Art, Nagaoka, Japan
Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Bridgestone Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Gothenburg Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden
National Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France
Verviers Museum, Belgium
Cantini Museum, Marseille, France
Chaux-de-Fonds Museum, Switzerland
Tamayo Museum, Mexico City, Mexico
Haifa Museum, Israel
Museum of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
Bibliografia:
Luis Feito, austellung, kunstveiren in Hambourg , Luis Feito, Hambourg, 1964
Luis Feito, cat. d'exposition, Ed. Galerie Arnaud, Paris, 1965
Del rojo al negro, L. F. et A. A. Ares, Musée Art Contemp., Montreal, 1968
Tableaux, 1953-1968, M.-A. Levin, Ed. M. Art contemporain, Montreal, 1969
Feito, coll., cat. d'exposition, Ed. Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, 1988
Luis Feito, coll., cat., Ed. Caja de Ahorros Municipal de Pamplona, 1998
Feito, Juan Manuel Bonet, Ed. Minist. de Asuntos Exteriores, Madrid, 2002
Luis Feito - Obra gràfica, coll., cat., Ed. Madrid Publicaciones, 2004
L. F. - Obra gràfica, coll., cat., Ed. Fund. Museo del Grabado Español Contemp., 2006
L. F. - Papel, cat. d'exposition, Ed. Museo de Dibujo J. Gavin-Castillo, Larrés, 2016.
In 1953 he moved to Paris on a scholarship from the French government. After an exhibition at Galerie Arnaud in 1955, he left his teaching position at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts to settle permanently in Paris, where he resided for nearly 25 years. Here he had the opportunity to see the work of international contemporary painters such as Jean Fautrier, Hans Hartung, Serge Poliakoff, and Mark Rothko and to get to know several leading artists of Informal Art. During this period he began to use other materials, particularly sand, in his paintings.
During his stay in Paris, Feito maintained close contacts with the Spanish avant-garde and was one of the founding members of the Madrid-based El Paso group (1957-60), which emphasized an innovative anti-academic art by expressing, in its abstract language and exacerbated taste for pictorial material, a profound and dramatic contestation as well as a formal, political one. The El Paso manifesto highlights the group's goal of creating a new spiritual state in Spanish art, recognizing the need to act in the wake of a devastating civil war.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Feito's work was characterized by a palette contrasting blacks, grays, whites, and ochres. Later he introduced red into his works as a counterpoint, and then as the primary color in many compositions. Work from this period also shows his interest in materiality through the superimposition of smooth, full-bodied surfaces, which he achieves through the use of sand and heavy impasto.
In 1963 his works tend toward greater formal simplicity in which circular forms predominate, reflecting his interest in Japanese art.
From 1964-65 color dominates (Diptyque No. 563, 1966, Marseille, Cantini Museum), especially in the large canvases presented at the 1968 Venice Biennale: dense masses of bright colors are organized in simple rhythms with a kind of elemental force and often contrast with vast flat areas in monumental diptychs (Galerie Arnaud exhibition, 1968).
Throughout his career, Feito has continually explored the relationships between surface textures, light, color and form. In 1981 he moved to Montreal and then to New York in 1983, where he continued to live and work until the early 1990s.
Early international group exhibitions include the Venice Biennale (1956, 1958, 1960, 1968); São Paulo Biennale, Brazil (1957, 1963); Documenta, Kassel, West Germany (1959); Paris Biennale (1959); Guggenheim Museum (1960); Tate Gallery, London (1962); and Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh (1962).
Retrospectives include those at Galerie Arnaud, Paris (1961); Hamburg Museum, West Germany (1964); Musée d'art contemporain, Montreal (1968); and Museum of Contemporary Art (now National Museum of Art Reina Sofía), Madrid (1998). The Michelangelo Gallery in 1983 organized a solo exhibition of the artist's work, showing works created between 1960 and 1971.
After his election to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1998, the Reina Sofía Museum organized a traveling retrospective (2002). He was appointed Officer (1985) and Knight Commander (1993) of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. He received the international grand prize from the Asociación Española de Críticos de Arte (AECA) at the Arco art fair, Madrid (2002).
Museums:
Guggenheim Foundation, New York, USA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Museum of Modern Art Michigan, USA
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, USA
Baltimore Museum, Baltimore, USA
Seattle Museum, Seattle, USA
Houston Museum, Houston, USA
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Spain
Museum of Abstract Art, Cuenca, Spain
Fundacion Juan March, Madrid, Spain - Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid Spain
Ateneum Meuseum, Helsinki, Finland
Royal Museums, Belgium
Museum of Modern Art, Rome, Italy
Lisson Museum, Italy
Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museum of Fine Art, Montreal, Canada
Toronto Art Museum, Toronto, Canada
National Museum, Ottawa, Canada
Museum of Modern Art, Nagaoka, Japan
Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Bridgestone Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Gothenburg Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden
National Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France
Verviers Museum, Belgium
Cantini Museum, Marseille, France
Chaux-de-Fonds Museum, Switzerland
Tamayo Museum, Mexico City, Mexico
Haifa Museum, Israel
Museum of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
Bibliografia:
Luis Feito, austellung, kunstveiren in Hambourg , Luis Feito, Hambourg, 1964
Luis Feito, cat. d'exposition, Ed. Galerie Arnaud, Paris, 1965
Del rojo al negro, L. F. et A. A. Ares, Musée Art Contemp., Montreal, 1968
Tableaux, 1953-1968, M.-A. Levin, Ed. M. Art contemporain, Montreal, 1969
Feito, coll., cat. d'exposition, Ed. Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, 1988
Luis Feito, coll., cat., Ed. Caja de Ahorros Municipal de Pamplona, 1998
Feito, Juan Manuel Bonet, Ed. Minist. de Asuntos Exteriores, Madrid, 2002
Luis Feito - Obra gràfica, coll., cat., Ed. Madrid Publicaciones, 2004
L. F. - Obra gràfica, coll., cat., Ed. Fund. Museo del Grabado Español Contemp., 2006
L. F. - Papel, cat. d'exposition, Ed. Museo de Dibujo J. Gavin-Castillo, Larrés, 2016.
