The Latin America collection will open on January 25 as a posthumous exhibition that will represent a tribute from that Catalan city to the Guayaquil artist.
The connection between Enrique Tábara (1930-2021) and the city of Barcelona (Spain) is profound, since since the late 1950s the artist from Guayaquil found special coincidences between his creative interests and art movement called informalism that took place in that city and throughout Europe, which expressed an abstract language that included objects other than art, such as wire mesh, textiles and sand.
And so much was his presence in that city, that in 1961 he was invited to represent Spain in a tribute to surrealism organized by the poet André Bretón in France, in which he participated together with artists such as Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and Eugenio Granell.
Therefore, the artist’s children show great satisfaction and pride when announcing that Enrique Tábara’s Latin America collection will open next January 25 in Barcelona at the initiative of the Círculo de Críticos de Arte de Cataluña and the Factoria Cultural de Terrassa (Barcelona), entities that in this way offer him a posthumous tribute as a result of the admiration and recognition of his artistic work.
This was announced during a press conference held yesterday Friday in the auditorium of the Anthropological and Contemporary Art Museum (MAAC). “This collection began in 2016 with an exhibition held right here at the MAAC as a tribute to ancestral cultures. That’s where the name of Latin American Collection comes from, ”explained Eduardo Tábara, president of the Enrique Tábara Foundation, an entity that co-organizes the exhibition from Guayaquil.
The sample is composed of 40 works from the Enrique Tábara Foundation and 10 works from the collection of the Galería Estudio Tábara, which allow that after 58 years that distinguished Buenos Aires talent to exhibit in Spain again.
Joan Gil, Catalan art historian, art critic and curator, who met Tábara 20 years ago, is one of those responsible for the return of Tábara’s art to Barcelona. “Enrique had a great relationship with Barcelona,” he explained through a video recorded from Barcelona especially for this occasion, in which he mentioned that the Guayaquil artist sowed a great friendship with talents such as Antoni Tapies, Will Faber, Roman Valles, among others. exhibitors of the informalist movement, as well as art critics of the time. “Everyone was impressed by the strength and courage of Enrique Tábara … He was one of those who contributed, to some extent, to some avant-garde novelties of the moment,” he pointed out and highlighted the powerful character of paintings such as the so-called leg-leg, with legs and feet, so emblematic of Tábara.
Gil added that the informalist stage of Tábara was concentrated between the years 57 and 63 in Barcelona, and even reached Madrid. He also participated in Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland. “He was one of the foreign artists who had a great activity in Catalan informalism”. He also highlighted the firm connection he had with his ancestral origins in Ecuador.
The artist Hernán Zúñiga, who was a friend of Tábara, expressed at the press conference his satisfaction when observing that this exhibition will show that his colleague is still alive through his work and his children. “He refuses to leave … Enrique’s dream and contact with Catalonia is still alive … I find it completely satisfying and moving that Enrique returns to Spain and Catalonia.”
Zúñiga added that he knew Tábara’s way of working very well. “We were with two chefs. Each one knew the other’s cooking ”. So I often observed him buying materials for his works, such as sand, chalk, granite and white glue, in hardware stores in the center, with which he undertook what Hernán describes as the Guayaquil Informalism.
The exhibition will last two months in Barcelona, after which several of the paintings will be exhibited at the Enrique Tábara House-Museum which, as announced, will open on Saturday, December 4, at his retirement home located in the Cuatro Mangas campus, Buena Fe canton. , Los Ríos province.
“My father left expressed in his will the wish that his house be transformed into a museum as a legacy for the area and the country,” said Oswaldo Tábara, vice president of the Foundation, who explained that the works of various artists, in addition to his own paintings, collections, and personal belongings. And on the ground floor there will be an archeology collection.
The Enrique Tábara House-Museum will be part of a large cultural center designed by the artist, which they hope to finish building in the near future with the support of national entities (such as the municipalities of Buena Fe and Quevedo, and the prefecture of Los Ríos) and abroad.
The cultural center, which would be walled and would have one hectare in size, would have a great pyramid (which would function as a natural receptor of energy) and would show other artist interests, such as the study of the UFO phenomenon. For this reason they trust that it will also function as a destination for astrotourism. (I)
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