Amadeo Gabino

The exhibition of Amadeo Gabino at the Centre Julio González is the first retrospective of his work and has been conceived directly in conjunction with the artist. Focusing particularly on his sculpture, the exhibition provides an approach to its special plastic quality, starting with the non-representational sculptures that he made between 1960 and 1965, developing aesthetics close to Constructivist concepts, and then going on to explore the more personal period that began in about 1966 with his participation in the Venice Biennial and which has continued until the present day, as can be seen in his recent pieces, some of which have been created for this occasion. The catalogue published to accompany the exhibition is illustrated with reproductions of the works exhibited and offers an overview of the creative oeuvre of Amadeo Gabino that ranges beyond his sculptural output and pays particular attention also to his activity in other fields, such as design and graphic art. Its pages include texts by Peter Baum, José Corredor-Matheos, Manfred Fath, Patricia Molins, Manuel Vicent and the curator of the exhibition, Rafael Prats Rivelles. Amadeo Gabino (Valencia, 1922) is one of the most outstanding artists of contemporary Spanish sculpture, alongside Chillida, Serrano, Alfaro and Chirino. In his extensive professional career—devoted basically to sculpture, principally with metal materials—there is a very special appeal which has attracted the attention of students of art and enabled him to achieve a considerable international impact. In Amadeo Gabino the creative urge appears in various guises. Although best known for his activity in the field of sculpture, he has also applied his personal vocabulary to the areas of drawing, engraving, monotype and collage. In 1950, when he finished a period of further study in Rome after the conclusion of his studies at the Escuela de San Carlos, he was awarded the Third Prize at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid. Three years later he obtained the First Prize in the Bienal Hispano-Americana in Havana, and the following year he received the First Prize in the Milan Triennial. In 1961, with a grant from the Ford Foundation, he travelled to the United States, where he made the acquaintance of Archipenko, Lipchitz and Calder in New York. He has two prizes for industrial design to his credit, corresponding to the national contest in Madrid in 1956 and the international contest in Valencia in 1980 respectively. Other noteworthy achievements include the “Motorways of the Mediterranean” international sculpture contest prize, in 1974, and prizes for engraving, in Spain and Mexico, in 1980. In 1988 he was awarded the Alfons Roig Prize by the Provincial Council of Valencia. His work has toured the world in solo and group exhibitions and is represented in some thirty museums in Europe and America, in countries such as Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Cuba, the United States, Finland, Mexico, Venezuela and Spain, among others. His sculptures are to be found in buildings, public places and open-air museums, in Caracas, Linz, Mannheim, Seville, Madrid, Valencia and elsewhere. The son of the sculptor Alfonso Gabino, he took part in the Valencian experiment of the Grupo Parpalló. His urge to travel provided him with an opportunity to establish relationships with significant figures such as Marino Marini, Lucio Fontana, Giacomo Manzù, Carlo Carrà, Louise Nevelson, Max Ernst, Alexander Calder, Seymour Lipton, Jacques Lipchitz, Alexander Archipenko, Jesús Rafael Soto and Louis Kahn. Some of the characteristics that define Amadeo Gabino’s oeuvre are his special contribution to Constructivist sculpture, the plurality of procedures featured in his work, the desire to take art beyond the boundaries of gallery or museum, the particular use of certain materials, and the relationship between art and technology. The interpretation of this work provides an introduction to certain facets that have shaped the reality of art in the twentieth century.