Jorge Oteiza modern art museum in Spain.
When you find a jewel you simply know it. Jorge Oteiza´s modern art museum in Pamplona, Spain (a very well know city for its San Fermines as well as for being part of the Camino de Santiago), is one of them for many reasons…
By the way, some months ago I wrote about another jewel: a top quality modern art museum in Spain not to miss: the Museum of abstract art in Cuenca.
As I was saying, Jorge Oteiza´s modern sculpture museum is a MUST if you are a contemporary art lover.
Jorge Oteiza Museum. (Entrance detail). @antonio basso
Considered one of the most influential XXth century sculptors, Jorge Oteiza was more than that. He was a sublime and deep abstract artists whose studious´ life could perfectly be compared to that of Leonardo Davinci.
Jorge Oteiza sculpture | Museum Jorge Oteiza | @thomas mayer
Oteiza´s modern art museum was specially build by his friend the architect Sáenz de Oiza to integrate the artists´creations with the building. As you can see in this article´s photos, the resulting symbiotic integration was perfect, a charateristic that makes this art museum a mystical unique place. I had never seen so perfect integration ever (and I´ve already visited many world museums). Light, walls, shadows, forms, corners, furniture style and layout incredibly interact and fusion with Oteiza´s figuratives and abstract sculptures .
Jorge Oteiza Museu, (detail) @antonio basso
Oteiza´s most influential abstract sculptures (those from the 1950´s decade) deal with geometry, space, matter and emptiness. He deeply and seriously reflected about the above themes, and as Gonzalez Pedemonte says is his blog “he pretended to hollow his sculptures of matter so that they would essencially contain pure space. For him space was the most genuine art expression, a perfection that got close to the sacret and that no other matter could equate”.
Jorge Oteiza. metaphysical box by conjunction of two trihedral. A tribute to Leonardo @aparienciasyvirtualidades
Otieza´s called his 1950´s abstract process “desocupaciones”, whose main objective was the emptiness that shows up when shape (space´s bundle) is decomposed.
Jorge Oteiza. Museo Jorge Oteiza (@antonio basso)
After developing this emptiness concept for almost a decade, and while being at the most successful moment of his artistic career, Oteiza stop investigating (he even said that contemporary art was finished) and “quit being a sculptor”. For this strict modern artist there was a big difference between being a sculptor (the artist that investigates) and sculpting (the process of mass making and “repeating” sculptures).
Jorge Oteiza sculpture. Museo Oteiza @josema cutillas
The influece and power of Jorge Oteiza´s creations can not be summarized in a blog post. Should you want to investigate this sculpting master a bit further, I really recommend you to make an effort (if you travel from outside Spain) and visit his museum. I asure you will not regret!!
What other unique contemporary or abstract museums would you recommend to yasoypintor readers?. What do you think about Oteiza´s differentiation between being a sculptor and sculpting?.
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