• Two Previously Undisplayed Works from Oteiza’s Earliest Period on Show at the Museum in Alzuza
• “Woman before a Mirror” (1939) and “Family Figure” (1951) are on loan from the Carreras Mugica Gallery

 

Two works created by Oteiza during his earliest, figurative period have now been installed in the Oteiza museum, where they fill a gap in the “Oteiza. The Collection” exhibition.  The two works, neither of which has previously been exhibited are Woman before a Mirror, made in Buenos Aires in 1939 and Family Figure, made in 1951, a few years after the artist’s return from South and Central America. The two pieces will initially be on display for a minimum of one year on loan from the owner, the Carreras Mugica Gallery in Bilbao.

         They will be exhibited in the collection of work from Oteiza’s early artistic career, which includes pieces from the early 1930s, his sojourn in South and Central America (1935-48) and the period immediately following his return.

          Woman before the Mirror (49.5 x 19 x 25 cm) was made during his time in the Americas. The piece, in glazed ceramic, is unusual in the context of his oeuvre.  Made in Buenos Aires in 1939, it ties in with the expressionist discourse of his early pieces. It plays with a reality in which the mirror the woman is gazing into extends the almost Velazquez-like space which he would reintroduce in some of his later works. The reflected face is not a mere incision; it protrudes from the plane of the mirror in a game of unrealities, defining a compositional mode that would not be seen again in his subsequent work and which marks a turning point in his artistic quest.

         Jorge Oteiza lived in Buenos Aires from 1936 to 1942 and in 1941 he taught at the National School of Ceramics. A year later he was hired by the Colombian government to organise ceramics teaching in Colombia and he lectured at the University of Popayán. The sculpture, dated 8 November 1939, is dedicated to Elena Jiménez, daughter of Pedro Jiménez Ilundain (an industrialist and intellectual from Navarra who had corresponded extensively with Unamuno), who was given it as a birthday present.  The Oteiza Museum has three drawings related to the sculpture Woman before the Mirror.

      

    Family Figures, made in 1951 in white limestone (33 x 12 x 10.5  cm),  comes from Oteiza’s early figurative period and is one of a group of works he made in Bilbao between 1949 and 1952, following his return from the Americas and before he moved to Madrid.

         The singularity of this piece is that one of the figures depicted has a face on the front and back. In this way Oteiza worked with the idea of simultaneity, i.e., two different moments from a single figure occurring at the same time. This idea can be seen in other works, such as Essay on the Simultaneous, made the same year. During this period, Oteiza worked on weakening the figurative expression and on projecting the depiction of the figure in space.  Here, as in other works from this period, the volumes seem flattened and the planes are oriented towards convergent points outside the material.

         These two pieces belong to the Carreras Mugica Gallery in Bilbao, which has agreed to loan them to the Oteiza Museum for a period of one year with the option of renewing the agreement after that time.