Antonio Lafuente

Antonio Lafuente - Aphrodite facing the sea

Biografía del Artista:

With the decline and death of the dictator and his forty-year military regime, a terrifying abyss of silence, ignorance and isolation opened up at the feet of the Spanish people. Although the arts, literature, theatre and philosophy had permanently kept a small and heroic candle lit in the basement of the system, those who in those fearful and exciting times were or were beginning to be young people with artistic concerns found themselves faced with an immense void of references, both from the cruelly interrupted heritage of indigenous creation, and from what the rest of the world was bringing to light, only discernible through the small cracks of censorship. Despite this, enthusiasm, the desire for experimentation, provocation and rupture, as well as the influence of new magazines such as Nueva Lente, which were in turn a platform of expression for new creators, made possible a renaissance of photography, design and illustration during the transition to democracy. Antonio Lafuente, Miguel Ángel Mendo and Oscar Mariné were part of that creative renaissance that placed the capital of Spain on the most avant-garde map of those distant days of the 70s and early 80s. This exhibition features some original photomontages by Antonio Lafuente and Miguel Ángel Mendo, hand-coloured with watercolour, oil and gouache, which gave rise to a new concept of photographic illustration somewhere between Surrealism and Pop Art. Both formed the now defunct Yeti Team. From Oscar Mariné, creator of one of the leading figures of the emerging culture of the 80s, the magazine Madrid me mata, we have selected four significant works with which he contributed to illuminating those years of profound change in our society. In his own words, “what is known as the Movida madrileña was nothing more or less than a time in which we supported each other and worked almost collectively. We were a supportive generation.”