Eusebio Sempere
Encyclopedia
Eusebio Sempere was a Spanish sculptor, painter and graphic artist whose abstract geometric works make him the most representative artist of the Kinetic art
movement in Spain and one of Spain's foremost artists. His use of repetition of line and mastery of color to manipulate the way light plays on the surface give depth to his pictorial compositions.
where he studied painting, drawing and various etching techniques. Due to a childhood disease he had almost no vision in his right eye.
In 1948 Sempere went to study in Paris, where he met Palazuelo
and Chillida and other avant-garde artists such as Kandinsky and Klee
. Here he came under the influence of Braque, and improved the screen printing technique he used frequently in later years. In 1955, his work was noticed by art critics at the Denise Rene Gallery and in 1956 he showed two works at the Salon des Nouvelles Realites Paris. In this period he was greatly impressed by Vasarely’s theories of kinetic art. In Paris he also met Hans Arp
and was friends with Nina Kandinsky, the painter's widow, and Roberta González, the daughter of sculptor Julio González
. In 1957 he made the acquaintance of Martin Abel who worked with him years later to produce limited editions of his serigraphs.
Returning to Spain in 1959, he moved to Valencia, where art critic Aguilera Cerní, editor of Arte vivo (The Living Art) magazine, introduced Sempere to the Group Parpalló, a cultural movement not limited to the visual arts. Formed in 1957, it included artists such as Castellano
, Genovés
, Navarro, Soria
, Michavila, Andres Alfaro, Manolo Gil, Amadeo Gabino, Isidoro Balaguer, and others striving to renew the cultural landscape in Valencia. The group published a magazine, called at first Arte vivo and later “Parpalló”, and began group exhibitions.
In 1964, Sempere was granted a Ford Foundation fellowship which allowed him to travel to the United States and put on an exhibition at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery, and to show his work in the Spanish Pavilion at the World’s Fair in New York. In 1968 Sempere participated in a seminar at the Computer Centre of the Complutense University of Madrid
on "Automatic generation of plastic forms" where he created works using computers. In 1969, he traveled again to the United States on a fellowship and there used a computer to create original art, a technique that he would continue to experiment with on his return to the University of Madrid, where he became a pioneer of this innovation in Spain.
Still exhibiting regularly at the Denise Rene Gallery in Paris, he participated in some notable public projects; the best-known examples are the sculptures and carved railings at the Museo Esculturas al Aire Libre (Museum of Outdoor Sculpture) in Madrid. Sempere persuaded his artist friends, including Pablo Serrano, Miró
, and Chillida, to donate their work, much of which is spectacular, especially his own cascade that forms a centerpiece of the assembly. Sempere’s work in the gardens of the Fundación Juan March (Juan March Foundation) also in Madrid, next to the concrete sculpture by Chillida, is highly regarded as well.
In 1980 he won the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, awarded by the Ministry of Culture in Madrid, and in 1983 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts. He was officially named a favorite son of the city of Alicante and awarded an honorary doctorate by the University. He died in April 1985 in Onil, Alicante, after a long illness.
and constructivism
with elements of kinetic art.
His personal contribution to the development of kinetic art is his series of abstract geometric constructions which demonstrate the perceptual effects of optical vibration and the illusion of motion. Light also plays an important role in his artistic work. Perhaps influenced by Levantine sources, Sempere uses it as the main element to organize his creations harmoniously. His paintings are considered as two-dimensional surfaces where the artist plays with visual elements: the light, the colors and tones, using perceptual and optical effects to create suggestive forms in repeating geometric shapes.
Sempere worked in many different media, from drawings, gouaches, oil paintings, and silk screen prints to sculptures of iron and stainless steel. Two of his works can be seen in the Museum of Outdoor Sculpture in Madrid, for which he created the rails, now painted blue, which suggest a curious moiré effect when walking beside them, and a mobile which he had loaned to the museum.
The Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art (Museo Alicantino de Arte Contemoraneo) contains the collection of twentieth century art donated by Sempere to the city in 1978. It is located in Alicante's oldest civil building, the Casa de la Asegurada, which dates to 1685. The nucleus of the collection contains works by major Spanish artists of the 1950s: Alfaro, Canogar, Chillida
, Mompó, Saura, Tàpies, Zobel and Viola. Overall, it includes these and more than 500 pieces comprising paintings, sculptures, mixed media and lithographs by other great Spanish and foreign artists such as Dalí
, Picasso, Millares
, Serrano, Miró
, Gris
, Kandinsky, Chagall and Vasarely, and covering all stages of Sempere's own career.
Sempere's outdoor sculpture of metal rods at the Juan March Foundation in Madrid inspired two Spanish physicists to develop a new method for cancelling noise. Discussing the mechanics of sound attenuation over beers, they realized that the sculpture might reveal an optimum arrangement of materials that dampens noise not by absorbing it, but by interfering with the transmission of sound waves.
Kinetic art
Kinetic art is art that contains moving parts or depends on motion for its effect. The moving parts are generally powered by wind, a motor or the observer. Kinetic art encompasses a wide variety of overlapping techniques and styles.-Kinetic sculpture:...
movement in Spain and one of Spain's foremost artists. His use of repetition of line and mastery of color to manipulate the way light plays on the surface give depth to his pictorial compositions.
Biography
He began his studies at the School of Fine Arts of San Carlos de ValenciaReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos de Valencia
The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos de Valencia has been a Spanish Art school in Valencia since 1768.- History :...
where he studied painting, drawing and various etching techniques. Due to a childhood disease he had almost no vision in his right eye.
In 1948 Sempere went to study in Paris, where he met Palazuelo
Pablo Palazuelo
Pablo Palazuelo was a Spanish painter and sculptor.- Work and Biography :Pablo Palazuelo was born in Madrid in 1916. In 1933 he studied architecture at the School of Arts and Crafts at Oxford University. Upon returning to Madrid in 1939, he began to devote all of his time to painting...
and Chillida and other avant-garde artists such as Kandinsky and Klee
Paul Klee
Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
. Here he came under the influence of Braque, and improved the screen printing technique he used frequently in later years. In 1955, his work was noticed by art critics at the Denise Rene Gallery and in 1956 he showed two works at the Salon des Nouvelles Realites Paris. In this period he was greatly impressed by Vasarely’s theories of kinetic art. In Paris he also met Hans Arp
Jean Arp
Jean Arp / Hans Arp was a German-French, or Alsatian, sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist in other media such as torn and pasted paper....
and was friends with Nina Kandinsky, the painter's widow, and Roberta González, the daughter of sculptor Julio González
Julio González
Julio González may refer to:* Julio César González , Mexican light-heavyweight boxer* Julio González , Cuban responsible for the 1990 Happy Land Fire...
. In 1957 he made the acquaintance of Martin Abel who worked with him years later to produce limited editions of his serigraphs.
Returning to Spain in 1959, he moved to Valencia, where art critic Aguilera Cerní, editor of Arte vivo (The Living Art) magazine, introduced Sempere to the Group Parpalló, a cultural movement not limited to the visual arts. Formed in 1957, it included artists such as Castellano
Ramón Castellano de Torres
Ramón Castellano de Torres is a Spanish artist. The critics of art are in the habit of cataloguing him as a fundamentally expressionist painter, but his long artistic career and for his wide variety of styles and cultivated technologies makes it extremely risky to do it so categorically.The son...
, Genovés
Genovés
- Persons :* Paco Cabanes Pastor, Genovés I, Valencian pilotari.* José Cabanes, Genovés II, Valencian pilotari....
, Navarro, Soria
Soria
Soria is a city in north-central Spain, the capital of the province of Soria in the autonomous community of Castile and León. , the municipality has a population of c. 39,500 inhabitants, nearly 40% of the population of the province...
, Michavila, Andres Alfaro, Manolo Gil, Amadeo Gabino, Isidoro Balaguer, and others striving to renew the cultural landscape in Valencia. The group published a magazine, called at first Arte vivo and later “Parpalló”, and began group exhibitions.
In 1964, Sempere was granted a Ford Foundation fellowship which allowed him to travel to the United States and put on an exhibition at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery, and to show his work in the Spanish Pavilion at the World’s Fair in New York. In 1968 Sempere participated in a seminar at the Computer Centre of the Complutense University of Madrid
Complutense University of Madrid
The Complutense University of Madrid is a university in Madrid, and one of the oldest universities in the world. It is located on a sprawling campus that occupies the entirety of the Ciudad Universitaria district of Madrid, with annexes in the district of Somosaguas in the neighboring city of...
on "Automatic generation of plastic forms" where he created works using computers. In 1969, he traveled again to the United States on a fellowship and there used a computer to create original art, a technique that he would continue to experiment with on his return to the University of Madrid, where he became a pioneer of this innovation in Spain.
Still exhibiting regularly at the Denise Rene Gallery in Paris, he participated in some notable public projects; the best-known examples are the sculptures and carved railings at the Museo Esculturas al Aire Libre (Museum of Outdoor Sculpture) in Madrid. Sempere persuaded his artist friends, including Pablo Serrano, Miró
Miro
Miro may refer to:* Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization, a reformist Iranian political organization* Prumnopitys ferruginea, an evergreen coniferous tree endemic to New Zealand.* Miro Technologies, an MRO supplier from California...
, and Chillida, to donate their work, much of which is spectacular, especially his own cascade that forms a centerpiece of the assembly. Sempere’s work in the gardens of the Fundación Juan March (Juan March Foundation) also in Madrid, next to the concrete sculpture by Chillida, is highly regarded as well.
In 1980 he won the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, awarded by the Ministry of Culture in Madrid, and in 1983 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts. He was officially named a favorite son of the city of Alicante and awarded an honorary doctorate by the University. He died in April 1985 in Onil, Alicante, after a long illness.
Work
Sempere's work is defined by the abstraction of its elements, geometric repetition and linearity, all of which evolved into his synthesis of Op ArtOp art
Op art, also known as optical art, is a style of visual art that makes use of optical illusions."Optical art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing." Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made...
and constructivism
Constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:* Constructivist epistemology, the philosophical view* Constructivism in international relations* Constructivism , a philosophical view on mathematical proofs and existence of mathematical objects...
with elements of kinetic art.
His personal contribution to the development of kinetic art is his series of abstract geometric constructions which demonstrate the perceptual effects of optical vibration and the illusion of motion. Light also plays an important role in his artistic work. Perhaps influenced by Levantine sources, Sempere uses it as the main element to organize his creations harmoniously. His paintings are considered as two-dimensional surfaces where the artist plays with visual elements: the light, the colors and tones, using perceptual and optical effects to create suggestive forms in repeating geometric shapes.
Sempere worked in many different media, from drawings, gouaches, oil paintings, and silk screen prints to sculptures of iron and stainless steel. Two of his works can be seen in the Museum of Outdoor Sculpture in Madrid, for which he created the rails, now painted blue, which suggest a curious moiré effect when walking beside them, and a mobile which he had loaned to the museum.
The Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art (Museo Alicantino de Arte Contemoraneo) contains the collection of twentieth century art donated by Sempere to the city in 1978. It is located in Alicante's oldest civil building, the Casa de la Asegurada, which dates to 1685. The nucleus of the collection contains works by major Spanish artists of the 1950s: Alfaro, Canogar, Chillida
Eduardo Chillida
Eduardo Chillida Juantegui, or Eduardo Txillida Juantegi in Basque, was a Spanish Basque sculptor notable for his monumental abstract works.-Early life and career:...
, Mompó, Saura, Tàpies, Zobel and Viola. Overall, it includes these and more than 500 pieces comprising paintings, sculptures, mixed media and lithographs by other great Spanish and foreign artists such as Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
, Picasso, Millares
Manolo Millares
Manolo Millares was a Spanish painter. Self-taught as an artist, Millares was introduced to Surrealism in 1948. In 1953, he moved to Madrid and became an abstract painter. In 1957, Millares along with Antonio Saura and Pablo Serrano founded the avant-garde group El Paso in Madrid...
, Serrano, Miró
Joan Miró
Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...
, Gris
Juan Gris
José Victoriano González-Pérez , better known as Juan Gris, was a Spanish painter and sculptor who lived and worked in France most of his life...
, Kandinsky, Chagall and Vasarely, and covering all stages of Sempere's own career.
Sempere's outdoor sculpture of metal rods at the Juan March Foundation in Madrid inspired two Spanish physicists to develop a new method for cancelling noise. Discussing the mechanics of sound attenuation over beers, they realized that the sculpture might reveal an optimum arrangement of materials that dampens noise not by absorbing it, but by interfering with the transmission of sound waves.
Exhibitions
- 1949: exhibition at Mateu Art Gallery, Valencia
- 1961: first exhibition in Madrid in the Ateneo
- 1965: exhibited in Madrid in Juana Mordót Gallery
- 1972: exhibition at the Egam Gallery in Madrid
- 1975: exhibition at Rayuela Gallery in Madrid
- 1980: retrospective exhibition organized by the Ministry of Culture
- 1985: show of his graphic work 1946-1982, Banco de Bilbao, Bilbao
- 1998: retrospective exhibition at the IVAM, Valencia
Museums
- Valencian Institute of Modern Art IVAM , Valencia
- Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
- Modern Art Museum of Barcelona
- Abstract Art Museum of Cuenca
- Fogg Museum, Harvard University , USA
- Museum of Modern Art MOMA , New York
- Museum of Modern Art, Atlanta, USA
- Museum of Hamburg , Germany
- Fundación Juan March , Madrid
- MUA, Museum of the University of Alicante
- Museum of Contemporary Art of Alicante (MACA)
Awards
- 1964 - Ford Fellowship International Institute of New York
- 1980 - Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, Ministry of Culture, Madrid
- 1983 - Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts
- 1983 - Prize Alfons Roig, Council of Valencia