FIRST FLOOR|| TEMPORARY EXHIBITION
José Gurvich´s portraits

April - October 2006
Rooms 5 y 6: Mondays through Fridays from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm.
Saturdays: 11:00 am 3:00 pm.

The Portrait

The desire that human beings have of contemplating themselves through the interpretation of their own image, seems to be part of the oldest impulses of mankind and the art of the individual portrait is one of the artistic activities universally present in all ages.
As expression of power personified in man, as an instrument of religious and political propaganda, as a means of preserving or idealizing the memory of a face, as support of a plastic arts experience, the art of the portrait evolves according to the conception that each epoch has of the role of image and individual in the society.
Galienne y Pierre Francastel

Gurvich´s portraits

Thorough and precise, deeply involved and connected with the temper of the person whose portrait he was painting, Gurvich's permanent interest and curiosity made him experiment multiple aspects of a genre that demands a sharp sense of observation and also the technical means to achieve the transposition of the live model's physical, psychological and environmental features.

Taken from José Gurvich and the portrait by Cecilia de Torres

Copia de Goya, c.1957 Óleo/tela, 90 x 70 cm

""His first contact with the Masters in painting during his first trip to Europe in 1954, deeply touched him. In Madrid, he often visited the Prado. There, he studied the Masters who definitely influenced him, el Bosco and Brueghel. However, the two portraits he painted were: Mariana de Austria by Velázquez and Josefa de Bayere by Goya."

Madre del artista con sus hijos, 1952 Óleo /cartón, 58 x 42 cm.

The portraits of himself and his sister, or of both of them next to their mother, were done based on black and white photographs, taken by a town photographer in Lithuania. His memories of the place and his early childhood were reflected through the use of soft and tender tones.

Elsa Andrada, c. 1949 Óleo/cartón, 63 x 50 cm		Gurvich painted Elsa Andrada's profile. In this extraordinary work there is a complete union in the "planism", in the treatment of light and shadow and in a palette limited to gray and earth red. A continuous line outlines the head with a specific detail, the chin's shadow has the same quality and texture as the back's shadows leant on a cushion.

This portrait of his young mother was done only a year after Gurvich had joined Torres García's atelier. His personal caligraphy of short and delicate brush strokes is evident, as well as his nervous black line and taste for detail. The resemblance is remarkable, showing his feeling of tenderness towards her.		Madre del artista, 1951 Óleo/tela, 45 x 51