20 february – 20 april
Rooms 4 and 5. First floor.
The exhibition Intervened Photographs by the artist Juan Barreto is a project delves into Barreto’s visual universe, in this case by means of his photographic work.
The exhibition brings together 45 photographs kept until 2007, when he began to make the interventions, which summarise a personal vision based on the use of collage, line and colour, incorporating elongated figures that are seen in Barreto’s more plastic work. These photographs address themes such as literature, music and references to creators such as Federico García Lorca, Luis Cernuda, Manuel de Falla, and Eugenio Granell.
This is the artist’s second solo exhibition at the Eugenio Granell Foundation, after En torno a Galicia in 2013. Juan Barreto enjoyed a close relationship with Eugenio Granell, who acquired one of his works, Paisaje fantástico, for his personal collection.
Barreto began his artistic career after finishing his studies in Fine Arts, withhis end-of-degree trip to Galicia marking a turning point. After spending some time in Madrid, participating in the city’s cultural circles, being awarded the Velázquez Scholarship and receiving a grant from Seville Provincial Council, he made a trip around Italy with his reflex camera.
The artist arouses a special interest in black and white photography, which becomes a medium that transforms the image, featuring a pictorial, symbolic and surreal concept. His contact with Italian aesthetics and Fellini’s filmography influenced his artistic development towards a poetic expressionism. He began to take and collect photographs that reflect scenes and architecture from different countries and places in the 19th and 20th centuries.
On his return to Spain, he passed a competitive examination to become a drawing teacher and chose A Coruña, where he entered the School of Arts and Trades in 1969. There he attended the opening of the Sargadelos Factory and met Luis Seoane and Isaac Díaz Pardo, who became his friends. In 1978 he settled in Madrid as a professor of Plastic Arts and director of the Graphic Design School in 1986. He is also a corresponding academic and doctor of Fine Arts in his hometown.
Barreto has held more than 48 solo exhibitions in different galleries and institutions. His work is represented in the Reina Sofía Museum, Eugenio Granell Foundation, Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, L’Oreal Collection in Paris, among other national and international collections.
For more information:
EDUARDO LÓPEZ VALIÑA. Head curator
EUGENIO GRANELL FOUNDATION. Pazo de Bendaña Praza do Toural s/n (no number). 15705. Santiago de Compostela
tel. (+34) 981 57 21 24 tel. (+34) 981 57 63 94 fax. (+34) 981 56 40 69
email: conservadorjefe@fundacion-granell.org website: www.fundacion-granell.org
