Francisco Farreras

Francisco Farreras
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Born	1927
Nationality	Spanish
Citizenship	Spain
Occupation	Artist

Francisco Farreras is a Spanish artist born in Barcelona in 1927. While it is difficult to place his work within defined artistic movements, he can be included in geometric abstraction, abstract expressionism and informalism.

Biography

Early years

Farreras began his artistic activity early under the direction of the painter Antonio Gómez Cano de Murcia (1940) and Mariano de Cossío at the School of Arts and Crafts of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1941). He studied Fine Arts at the Real_Academia_de_Bellas_Artes_de_San_Fernando|Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, where in 1949 he obtained the title of Professor of Drawing. During 1952 and 1954 he made study trips to Paris, Belgium, and the Netherlands. By 1954 his professional artistic career was established with multiple group and solo exhibitions both in Spain and abroad.

In 1956 he won a competition to execute thirteen fresco wall paintings for the chapel of the Palace-Castle de Magalis in Las Navas del Marqués in Ávila, and made stained glass windows in the Dominicans of Alcobendas and in Tangier, the Coronation Church of Vitoria and the Spanish Chapel of the Manila Cathedral.

Between 1958 and 1959, his painting style was essentially geometric, with thick application of paint.

The Collages

At the end of the 1950s, Farreras began to use tissue paper and explore the possibilities that it offered him: The ductility of tissue paper, the transparencies and a reduced color range, but rich in nuances, mixed with the oxidations of the paper or the effects of fresh glue. This work catapulted Farreras to international recognition and remains unique and compelling. He exhibited in various places in Spain, at the Venice Biennale in 1958 and 1960, and at the MOMA in that same year. In 1962, he exhibited at Tate_Modern|The Tate Gallery, which added his work to the permanent collection. In 1963, he traveled through Scandinavia and Mexico, then settled in New York, where he resided for two years. Farreras was commissioned to create a large mural-collage for the Spanish Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. During the late 1950s and early 1960s he exhibited his work repeatedly at the Bertha Schaefer gallery in New York and showed at the Conrad Gallery in Chicago. He also worked in Spain with the Juana Mordó gallery, signing an exclusive contract with her for his work. In 1966 he returned to Spain and settled on the outskirts of Madrid, where he has resided since 1971.

The Coudrages

In 1982 Farreras was commissioned to make a large mural-collage for the Madrid-Barajas Airport. This work represented an initial break with collage, producing a radical change in his artistic output. The volumes, until then "suggested" on the flat surfaces of the painting, induced him to look for the formula for them to become physical volumes. Farreras endured several years of trials and exertion to produce volumetric works he calls coudrages, made with stitched woods and fabrics. The fragility of the material made him ultimately abandon the technique.

The Reliefs

By 1988, Ferraras definitively abandoned collage to dedicate himself solely and exclusively to wooden reliefs made from old wood from scrap yards. The shadows created appear next to the relief and, next to that, the oil. The chromaticism is still the same as always, very modulated. In 1990 he exhibited a large number of these works at the Galerie Scheffel in Bad Homburg in Germany. In 1992 he created a mural-relief for the Hotel Príncipe de Asturias on the Isla de la Cartuja, coinciding with the Universal Exhibition of Seville, which provided him with experience dealing with large-format woodwork.

At the same time, he carried out personal exhibitions in Santander, Seville, Córdoba, and Granada. After the itinerant exhibitions in Andalusia, he prepared a second exhibition for the Scheffel Gallery in Bad Homburg in Germany, in 1992.

In 1993 he held a second exhibition at the Detursa Gallery in Madrid, with large-format works, and participated in the traveling exhibitions organized by the Iberia Company in various Latin American countries.

In close collaboration with the Scheffel Gallery in Bad Homburg, Farreras participated in several international fairs during 1994 in Cologne, Chicago, Frankfurt am Main. He traveled again to the United States where he held an exhibition of reliefs at the Peyton-Wright Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. That same year he exhibited at the Rieder Gallery in Münich and at the Old Town Hall in Lahr (Black Forest), Germany.

In 1995 he participated in the ARCO fair in Madrid with a large-format relief, for which the Art Critics Association awarded him the second international prize as the best work exhibited in that competition. Once again, Farreras showed at the international fairs of Chicago, Cologne, and Frankfurt am Main, and added new trips to France, Switzerland, and Germany to exhibit at the Galerie Marie Louise Wirth in Zürich and at the Galerie Voght in Herten.

The Margarita Summers Gallery, in Madrid, held a retrospective exhibition of Farreras' work in 1996. Farreras also exhibited his works at the State Gallery in Jena, Germany.

In 1997 he exhibited at the Galerie Gunar Barthel in Berlin and participated in the ARCO fair in Madrid. Exhibits at the Caja de Pamplona, ​​on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the entity and at the Carlos de Amberes Foundation, Madrid.

In 1998 he exhibited at the Centro Atlántico de Arte, in La Coruña.

In 1999 he participated in various group exhibitions in Santander, Madrid, Pamplona, La Coruña and Berlin and made a great trip through the American West.

At the end of that same year, the Cultural Center of the Villa de Madrid held an extensive retrospective exhibition for several months that received the Medal of the Madrid Association of Art Critics for the best exhibition of the year.

Farreras started to tire of the relief work he had been doing for several years and thus began a new period in which three-dimensional volume is, in a certain way, marginalized. Starting in 2004, he began a series of experimentation works on almost flat surfaces and with a clear intention of synthesis and use of new materials. He worked without exhibiting until 2006. Numerous exhibitions took place in Madrid from that year on, when he was awarded the Medal of the Madrid Association of Art Critics for the best exhibition of 2006. He also exhibited at the Casa da Cerca (Contemporary Art Center, Almada, Portugal), at the Prova Gallery of Artist of Lisbon, at the Van Dyck Gallery in Gijón, at the Miguel Bombarda Gallery in Porto, Portugal and, again, at the Rieder Gallery in Munich, Germany.

Work in foundations, museums and public collections

• Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Downey Museum of Art, Downey, Los Angeles, California.
• ACA Art Fund, Tenerife, Canary Islands.
• National Gallery of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria.
• Kunstmuseum_Den_Haag|Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Hague.
• Hamilton Museum, Toronto, Ontario.
• Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii.
• McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas.
• Moderne Museet, Stockholm.
• Musée d'Art Contemporaine, Montreal, Quebec.
• Musée de la Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland.
• Centre Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris: Collage 275, 1966 (oil and paper on plywood, 99 x 78 cm) 3
• Union Fenosa Collection Museum, Corunna
• Museum of Spanish Abstract Art, Hanging Houses, Cuenca.
• Contemporary Art Museum, Elche, Alicante.
• Contemporary Art Museum, Helsinki.
• Contemporary Art Museum, Madrid.
• Contemporary Art Museum, Seville.
• Contemporary Art Museum, Villafames, Castellón.
• Museum of Modern Art, Vitoria.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Bilbao.
• Pedraza Museum, Pedraza, Segovia.
• Pamames Museum, Santander.
• Castle Museum of San José, Lanzarote, Canary Islands.
• Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum, Madrid.
• Museu d'Art Espanyol Contemporani, Juan March Foundation, Palma de Mallorca.
• Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna.
• Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
• The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York.
• The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia.
• The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
• The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
• Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum|The Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
• The Tate Gallery, London.
• Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, Switzerland.
• Bank of Granada, Grenade.
• Caixa Galicia, La Coruña.
• Contemporary Art Collection, Madrid.
• AENA Contemporary Art Collection, Madrid.
• Caja Pamplona Collection, Pamplona.
• Chase Manhattan Bank Collection, Madrid.
• Chase Manhattan Bank Collection, New York.
• Collection Banco Exterior de España. Madrid.
• Spanish Mortgage Bank Collection, Madrid.
• Banque Rothschild Collection, Zürich, Switzerland.
• Collection Foundation of the Banco Central Hispano Americano, Madrid.
• Official Credit Institute Collection. Madrid.
• Areces Foundation, Madrid.
• Argentaria Foundation, Madrid.
• Eugenio Mendoza Acosta Foundation, Caracas.
• Juan March Foundation, Madrid.
• Rodríguez Acosta Foundation, Grenada.

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