The history of Valencian design could not be told without the names of Paco Bascuñán and Quique Company, two artists that are not among us anymore. The dissemination in life was limited, specially in the seventies, because they used to move in alternative and demanding circles, apart from the common lines of artistic production. The Universitat de València has decided to rescue their artistic career through the exhibition ‘Paco Bascuñán y Quique Company. El equipo Escapulari-O y otras derivas’, inaugurated at the Cultural Centre La Nau.
The showing, curated by Marisa Giménez and Lupe Martínez, supposed the first retrospective of the most personal aspect of both of them. According to the curators, this exhibition revises the collaboration between Bascuñán and Company over more than 20 years and they highlight that ‘it is not just an exhibition of graphic design’, but of the whole universe of these two artists and a reflection of an era: a Valencia that was taking its first democratic steps, as they have explained in the press conference at La Nau.
During the event, the Vice-principal of Culture and Equality, Antonio Ariño, has remarked the character of a work that is ‘extraordinarily modern’ with a thematic and aesthetics ‘little indulgent that encourages reflection and that is hard to find at the moment’. ‘At that time there were no indignants movements but to some extent they were visionaries and some of their work reflect “Dies Irae”, Days of Warth’
The exhibition, that could be visited until next 29 May in the Estudi General Exhibition Room, gathers almost 150 works among joint projects, sketches, paintings, collages and very personal works. For the most parte, there are unknown projects coming, almost exclusively, from personal archives except from four works ceded by the Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM). The showing includes the entire production of the two artists.
Bascuñán (1954-2009) and Company (1954-2005) met in the in the Arts and Crafts School of Valencia and there they decided to work together for a period of time. After their separation, they followed different paths but, even when their respective lives and careers were very different, their wills of keep on sharing complicities or fate reunited them over time, originating interesting projects.
The itinerary of the exhibition starts with ‘Escapulari-O’ (1973-1978)’, the first joint project of Paco Bascuñán and Quique Company, that comes out for the first time in this exhibition. Precisely, this section evokes a vibrant Valencia, in a period of change, during the last years of Francoism and the first years of the Transition, and in which artists participated and were also witnesses through their works. Made with techniques that reveal their humble beginnings -spray, gouache, graphite, collage on used cardboards, striped paper sheets, the back of posters or calendars-, the pieces of this period, transgressive and avant-garde, keep intact today all their strength and visual impact.
From them emerges a clear message of protest and engagement through art, at the same time they transfer the environment that the authors lived in their youth, which makes them not just privileged testimonies of the era, but also of their lives.
Following its dissolution, Bascuñán and Company join Daniel Nebot to form the group ‘Enebecé’. It was the eighties: design becomes the icon of modernity. From later collaborations such as the group ‘Enebecé’ or ‘La Nave’ (1984), emerge. among other well-known works, the logo of the establishment of electronic music, rehearsals and videoart ACTV (Actividades Culturales Termas Victoria) that today is a symbol of the generation that lived the ‘ruta del bakalao’.
The exhibition also recalls the period of the mid nineties, ‘La Esfera Azul’, a cultural alternative space, located in a former parade of the fifties and in which both of them made their last joint work, ‘Las palabras incorrectas’, for which each author painted separately 6 canvas, that once they were together form such a cohesive work that shows that the physic separation between them never affected their complicity, that is visible in this exhibition at La Nau.
Contemporary and committed art at La Nau
With this new exhibition, the Universitat keeps on with its beat on the vindication of contemporary and commited art, that in the last month has paid homage to other two big names, Michavila and Alfaro. From last 16 Februrary it holds the exhibition ‘Michavila: Geometría y Ecología’, that gathers up a selection of 30 works that include the two main cycles of the Valencian artist: its geometric period and the landscape painting of the series ‘El Llac’.
On the 17 of this same month, the Universitat recognised the sculptor Andreu Alfaro when he was awarded, posthumously with the Medal of the institution in an event in which it was also presented a book that collects the Alfaro contributions to the sculpture of the XX century, as well as interviews and studies that analyse his work.
Currently, there are being prepared two more exhibitions: ‘No ficción. Artur Heras- Obsolescencia y permanencia de la pintura’, that will be opened next June, and ‘Yturrlade. Cartografías de lo sublime’, a selection of the most recent works of the painter and with which the next academic year will be inaugurated.
Last update: 10 de march de 2016 07:00.
News release
