Teixidor, Jordi | Colección

20th-21st Century, Spanish

Born in Valencia in 1941, Teixidor graduated from the San Carlos School of Fine Arts in 1964. The beginnings of his artistic career coincided with his appointment two years later as curator of the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español in Cuenca, together with José María Yturralde (1942). Teixidor assimilated the artistic teachings of the

Cuenca Group

—mostly Gerardo Rueda (1926-1996), Fernando Zóbel (1924-1984) and Gustavo Torner (1925)—and joined the

Nueva Generación

group. Influenced by those artists, he opposed the Realism prevailing in the Valencian art scene in the 1960s and began to develop a more personal language based on abstraction and highly influenced by American

Abstract Expressionism

and by

Informalism

Term coined by the French art critic Michel Tapié (under the name of art informel) to define the art movement that covers a whole range of abstract and gestural trends that emerged in Europe in the 1940s in parallel with the development of

Abstract Expressionism

in America. The movement is defined by a non-figurative language that lends a very significant role to the use of materials. The defining moment for Informalismo in Spain was in the 1950s, with a generation of artists whose languages embraced both European Art Informel and American

Abstract Expressionism

. These included, among others, Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012), Josep Guinovart (1927-2007), August Puig (1929-1999), Antonio Saura (1930-1998), Manolo Millares (1926-1972) and Rafael Canogar (1935).

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In 1973 the artist travelled for the first time to New York, before returning to the city again from 1979 to 1981 thanks to a scholarship from Fundación Juan March. Those stays were crucial in shaping Teixidor’s painting style, grounded in

Geometric Abstraction

but also clearly influenced by American

Minimal Art

and Constructivist aesthetics. In 1980 he was included in New Images from Spain, an exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, a show which marked a turning point in the artist’s career. From that moment onwards, his works convey a philosophical charge that would become one of the painter’s most personal traits.

On returning from New York, Teixidor settled in Madrid. In 1994 his production underwent a significant change, gradually leaving colour behind to achieve the purest of blacks. All expressive elements also disappeared in a return to geometric structures. In other words, Teixidor reformulated his practice and began to create his most monochromatic series.

In 1997, the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM) organised the first major retrospective of his work and in 2000 he was appointed a member of the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In that period his brushwork become more intricate as the artist recovered the gesturality of his earlier period. He continued his perennial quest for the perfect abstraction, this time adopting automatism, which gave his paintings a more lyrical quality full of colour.

In 2014 he was awarded Spain’s National Visual Arts Prize, in recognition of his prestige and his contributions to contemporary art.

Jordi Teixidor