Overview
Antonio Saura was a Spanish painter, printmaker and draughtsman. He was largely self-taught as an artist. Saura initially became interested in the Surrealist movement at the outset of his artistic career. However, after he met with André Breton in Paris during the mid 1950s and partly as a result of the political unrest in Spain, the young artist began to engage in a more expressionist style that led him to an alignment with the members of the CoBrA group. Eventually Saura’s art became an expression of his political views that protested against the Franco regime. He also began to show his works along with other members of the Situationist group which originally comprised a small band of avante-garde artists and intellectuals who, influenced by Dada, Surrealism and Lettr came to prominence in June of 1968 and were at first most concerned with the suppression of art and its expression. It is known that such artists as Alechinsky, Appel, Corneille, and Jorn also exhibited their works alongside this group. Saura was one of the founders of the El Paso group, which promoted Art Informel in Spain. He was awarded the Guggenheim Prize in 1960 and the Carnegie Prize in 1964.
Exhibitions
Museum of Contemporary Art, Madrid (1956)
Galerie Stadler, Paris (1957 & 1979)
Falerie Van de Loo, Munich (1959)
Pierre Matisse Gallery, NY (1961),
Stedelijk Museum, Eindhoven (1963
Rotterdamsche Kunsling (1963)
Musée de Buenos Aires (1963)
Musée de Rio de Janeiro (1963)
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1964)
Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden (1964)
Kunsthallen, Göteborg (1964)
Institute of Contempory Art, London (1965)
Galerie Maeght, Barcelona (1975 & 1984)
Abbaye de Sénanque, Gordes (1985)
Museums and Public Collections
Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, Spain
Caixa Galicia Foundation, Vigo, Spain
Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Fundación Telefónica, Chile
Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
Harvard University Art Museums, Massachusetts
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
Los Angeles County Museum of ArtÂ
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, ArgentinaÂ
Museo Patio Herreriano de Valladolid, Spain
National Gallery of Victoria, Australia  Â
Reina SofÃa National Museum, Madrid
Serralves Foundation Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal  Â
State Museums of Florence Digital Archive, Italy
Tate Gallery, London, UK