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CGAC Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela
Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea | Rua Valle Inclan, 2
15704 Santiago de Compostela
artist / participant
curators
press release
EDUARDO BATARDA. MISE EN ABYME
6 October 2017 - February 2018
[the exact end date is not yet known]
Eduardo Batarda (Coimbra, 1943) is one of the most recognised artists in Portugal and Mise en abyme is his first solo exhibition in Spain. Known for his paintings and watercolours, his work was first influenced by English pop art, comics and illustration, halfway between figuration and abstraction. This exhibition is curated by the renowned Portuguese artist Julião Sarmento, who offers his particular eye, complicit to Batarda's work, and at the same time a companion in exhibitions, admirer and collector of his work and, in this case, curator.
Eduardo Batarda studied art at the College of Fine Arts in Lisbon in the seventies, and from 1971 to 1973 he attended the Royal College of Art with a grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. From 1976 to 2008 he was a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. Since his first solo exhibition in 1968, he has regularly exhibited his work, including, among others, the retrospectives by the Centre for Modern Art in Lisbon in 1998 and the Serralves Museum in Oporto in 2011, organised to mark the EDP prize for a lifetimes' work awarded to him years before.
Batarda's works function as enigmatic inscriptions and escape meaning so nothing is consumed in the interpretation. Hence his career, like some of his pieces, contains seemingly abrupt changes of course, which are almost senseless, as it is not a question of tending towards unity, but rather, towards the curiosity emanating from the processes of concealment or the iconoclastic exhibition of the image. Batarda's work is encrypted painting, which needs to be decoded, and for this, the receiver's attitude is fundamental. It is uncomfortable painting, sometimes impossible, requiring time for interpretation and, in a way, an eye that is capable of exploring the complexities of the history of painting, but also the possibilities of writing. The exhibition will occupy the ground floor of the CGAC.