ARTIST STATEMENT
EXHIBITION HISTORY
GALLERIES
MY FAVORITES


Artist Statement -



I think the easiest way to define my activity as an artist and my intellectual approach to art would be to quote Apollinaire’s thesis in his Les Peintres cubistes: méditations esthétiques, especially the following sections:

... Therefore, as an offer to the spirit, in the plastic arts, the fourth dimension should be generated by the three known dimensions: represented by the immensity of space eternally present in all the dimensions of a given moment …
... Cubism differs from the painting that came before it because it is not the art of imitation, but the art of thought raised to the level of creation …
... Scientific cubism is one of the pure trends. It is the art of painting new compositions with elements taken not from visual reality, but from the reality of knowledge …
... Physical cubism is the art of painting compositions with elements taken primarily from virtual reality …

In my painting, I work with geometric figures arranged on different planes that overlap one another and blend into real shapes (bottles, cats, birds, fruit), fabricated objects (small origami birds and paper boats) and everyday things (hats, shoes, etc.) to create a world of mystery and sensuality. The lines I draw are devised and expressed as sensual, mystic happiness.
My works are full of shapes and visual configurations that diversify, overlap and repeat to activate an imaginary world that is also real in order to create an emotional charge and an atmosphere of poetic expression.
Works in which paint and air combine to create plastic expression.



Lázaro Ferré, José Luis

Barcelona 1945

He begins his studies in the Baixas Academy.

San Jorge Art College.

Mural painting school in San Cugat del Vallés, under the teacher Miquel Farré, with a scholarship from the Barcelona Provincial Council.

He studies engraving at the Art College.

He collaborates with the painter Ramón Vincens on the Bankisur mural in Barcelona (Chamber of Commerce).

Assistant to Professor Francisco Ribera Gómez at the San Jorge Art College.




PRIZES


1968 First prize for drawing San Jorge Art College
First prize for Christmas cards San Jorge Art College

1969 First prize for drawing San Jorge Art College
Second prize for painting San Jorge Art College

1970 Prize from Barcelona City Council for the most distinguished student of the 1969-70 academic year.
Scholarship from the Rodríguez Acosta Foundation in Granada.

1971 Study scholarship in the Paluar de Segovia, silver medal from the Regional Council of Segovia.

1972 XIV Painting Prize, Joven Sala Parés. Premio F.Gimeno

1976 Picasso bronze medal. Málaga
Second prize for painting in the “Premio Miguel Carbonell”, in Molins de Rey.



Artist Exhibitions



INDIVIDUALES EXHIBITIONS





1973 Sala Prócer, Barcelona

1974 Galería Grup S.A., Barcelona

1975 Galería Anglada, Barcelona
Galería Agora 3, Sitges
Galería Picasso, Málaga

1976 Galería Toba, Cuenca
Galería Grup S.A., Barcelona
Galería Vermeer, Logroño
Galería Bética, Madrid

1977 Sala Vayreda, Barcelona
Sala El Centauro, Sitges

1978 Galería Picasso, Málaga

1979 Cercle Artistic, Tortosa

1980 Cau de la Carreta, Sitges

1981 Galería Agora 3, Sitges

1982 Galería Picasso, Málaga

1983 Galería Picasso, Málaga

1984 Galería Picasso, Málaga

1985 Galería Agora 3, Sitges

1986 Galería Agora 3, Sitges

1987 Galería Luisa López, Tarragona

1990 Galería Grifé y Escoda, Barcelona

1994 Galería Grifé y Escoda, Barcelona

2000 Galería Kreisler, Madrid

2001 Galeria Grife y Escoda, Barcelona

2003 Garería Maria Salvat, Barcelona

2004 Galería i Leonarte, Valencia

2005 Art Gallery at Convento de San José de Brihuega, Guadalajara

2006 Zig Zag Art Gallery, San Andrés de LLaveneras, Barcelona.

2007 Nou Mil-lenni Art Gallery, Barcelona.

2007 Galeria Caixa Laietana, Mataro (Barcelona)

2009 Sala de Exposiciones Club Nautico el Balis, San Andres de
Llavaneras-Barcelona









JOINT EXHIBITION





1970 “Fundación Rodriguez Acosta”, Granada

1971 Caja de Ahorros, Segovia

1972 Circulo Artístico, Barcelona
Sala Prócer, Barcelona

1973 Sala Prócer, Barcelona

1974 Sala Prócer, Barcelona

1975 Galería Agora 3, Sitges
Saló de la Tardor de la Sala Vayreda, Barcelona
Sala Vayreda, Barcelona

1976 Fira Nacional de Dibuix, Sala Parés, Barcelona
Salo de la Tardor Agora 3, Sitges
Colectiva de dibujos. Sala Vayreda, Barcelona

1977 Colectiva en la Sala El Centauro, Sitges

1978 “Siete pintores jóvenes” Sala Parés Barcelona
Pintores de Sitges in the "Sala Valenti" in
Vilanova i la Geltru

1979 Colectiva Galería Agora 3, Sitges

1980 Colectiva Galería Agora 3, Sitges

1981 Colectiva Galería Agora 3, Sitges

1982 Colectiva Galería Agora 3, Sitges

1983 Colectiva Galería Agora 3, Sitges

1984 Colectiva Galería Agora 3, Sitges

1985 Colectiva Galería Agora 3, Sitges

1986 Colectiva Galería Agora 3, Sitges

1987 Colectiva Galería Agora 3, Sitges

1992 Galería Casrey, Barcelona

1993 Colectiva Galería Agora 3, Sitges

1995 Galería del Mar, Barcelona

2005 V Bienal de Florencia

2005 Galeria Nou Mil.lenni, Barcelona

2006 Galeria Nou Mil.lenni, Barcelona

2007 Galeria Nou Mil.lenni, Barcelona

2007 Galeria 4SPAIS D'ART, Lerida

2013 La Galeria, Barcelona

2013 Arts Libris, Santa Monica, Barcelona

2013 99 Mount Gallery de Londres (Etching)

...

Artist Publications



LAZAROFERRÉnews
Caixa Laietana Exhibit Hall
Plaza Santa Ana, 1-4 1rst floor, Mataró, Barcelona
From September 13th to November 4th, 2007.

Lazaro Ferré is a painter that possesses a classic style and comes from a tradition fascinated with the great genres of all times such as still life, portrait, landscape and mythology. Faithful to his beginnings and Mediterranean, or rather Hispanic roots, Lazaro Ferré has been able to, despite this fact, create diverse expressions. This can only be a result of his radical independence, his continued reflection, a solid discipline and his proven capacity to assimilate diverse artistic traditions.

The exhibit that he now presents at Caixa Laietana in Mataró is a clear example of this accomplishment. Visitors will be able to enjoy an extensive part of this artist’s most recent work. Backed by a solid and fruitful professional trajectory, he has chosen for this occasion a collection of twenty pieces that reflect who he’s been from the beginning of his career. His constant exploration of shape and color has geared his research toward the diverse pictoric languages available today.

In Ferré’s work things are identifiable, reality is represented in a spontaneous and easy way, without sophisticated or theatrical resources. Drama is absorbed by time, and by an exhibiting immediateness that brings the spectator to the narrative fact. He reinterprets the great themes of classical tradition, which will always be of cultural interest to us. Thus, his is a work inhabited by fauns, gods, myths and legends that celebrate the barbaric beauty. Beautiful ugly forms, ugly yet fascinating at the same time like the owl heads that are both messengers of death and symbols of science and medicine.

Also, geometric shapes of a confident stroke with control over angels and straight lines, shapes that neatly cut and superpose each other constructing an atmosphere of unity; the result obtained is fruit of the author’s analytic and speculative capacity. Color is another cohesive element of this search, its use is determinative and its application, although sometimes violent, is always carefully worked. On occasion, the author allows himself to be carried away by an explosive outburst in the shape of an intense blot of color, be it red, ochre or black. This is used as a disjoining or delusory element of the unity obtained between color and shape. It becomes evident then, that the emotional outburst is one of the most relevant aspects in the work of Lazaro Ferré.

We are, without a doubt, before a demanding proposal in which we can track the diverse influences. Most importantly, we can identify the resounding and powerful volumes that define a style based on the creation of a universe of shapes and tonalities that is closed upon itself. Foreign to outside elements, this work stands out for its strength and balance without having to renounce to a realist treatment of figuration. Among other catalyzers of modernity, stand out the discovery of arts and cultures that did not hold the concept of fine arts as an autonomous dominium. The incorporation of African ritual masks and fetish figures where part of modern legend for an extended period of time and Lazaro Ferré has drastically recuperated the mark they left behind with his return to the caves, to the mask. In this manner, the painter has been able to find an attractive personal style that stems from a great technical rigor and from a profound knowledge of tradition.

Agueda Viñamata
Associate Art History Professor at
Elisava Escola Superior de Disseny,
Attached to Pompeu Fabra University
NUEVA ALCARRIA
Wednesday, 3 August 2005

Bullfighting Mythology
By Rafael González

José Luis Lázaro Ferré, who has been selected to represent Spain at the 5th International Florence Biennale of Contemporary Art, exhibits his work in Brihuega.

Paintings and bulls are an inseparable couple in the art world. More and more artists are choosing this evocative world as the subject matter of their work, though most incline towards more photographic realism. The proposal of José Luis Lázaro Ferré is surprisingly different. The renowned artist exhibits his most recent paintings at the Convent of San José in Brihuega, with bulls and mythological components taking centre stage.

José Luis Lázaro Ferré sees bullfighting as a wonderfully studied choreography. “It’s essentially a ballet, though a somewhat dangerous one”, said the experienced artist, whose works are now on display at the refurbished San José Convent in Brihuega. Though Lázaro Ferré’s Catalan heritage may suggest a certain rejection of the bullfighting universe, nothing could be further from the truth. “I like the energy and symbolism”, he said. He could not have found a better town in the province to exhibit his collection of bullfighting pieces than Brihuega, the bullfighting centre of Guadalajara, a place where bulls have acquired very special significance.

Vibrant images of bull’s heads and horns and highly schematic landscapes are the two most common kinds of paintings in the exhibition of Lázaro Ferré’s work, which will be on display in Brihuega until 10 August 2005. This group of twenty recently created works is not so much impacting as suggestive and calming, encouraging viewers to reflect on the subject matter. The exhibition opens with the painting El salto de la Garrotxa, a 57x113 cm vertical collage, which is a good place to start to understand what follows. Vista de Brihuega comes next, a new landscape collage with Modernist nuances. “I try to schematize landscapes to make them more contemporary”, explained Lázaro. The work provides a view of some of the most emblematic monuments in Brihuega, such as the Arco de Cozagón. The first mythological references appear a bit further along in the exhibition, where the bulls are accompanied by key mythological figures such as Zeus. In fact, there are four different paintings entitled Zeus. The figure of the bull appears in each one, along with certain common features. The bulls are more humanized than is customary and can be seen in movement, thus offering the sensation of being alive.

The rest of this excellent exhibition full of curious details is made up of paintings of bull’s heads and horns, and ephemeral, fleeting landscapes reduced to the bare bones. This is the case of the painting Egipto, a beautiful symbolic creation in which nothing is what it appears to be. The pyramids are newspaper cut-outs and the sand is from the desert, but not the Egyptian desert.


Newspaper: La Clave
Print run: 60,000 copies
Publication date: 2-8 July 2004

The Imaginary World of Lázaro Ferré
Superimposed elements dominate his work

An exhibit of the work of Catalan painter José Luis Lázaro Ferré will be on display at the Galería i Leonarte in Valencia until 14 July 2004. Ferré’s works are full of diversified shapes and superimposed visual configurations that reappear in different paintings to create not only a universe that is at once imaginary and real, but also emotional ties that charge the work with poetic atmosphere. The more than twenty paintings on display include works in oil and pastel, such as “Barcelona 1”, “Barcelona 2”, “White Wine” and “Murano”.


EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
ART

THE CLEAN AVANT-GARDE STYLE OF LÁZARO FERRÉ

Maria Salvat Gallery
Princesa Sofía Hotel
Plaza de Pius XII, 4
Barcelona

José Luis Lázaro Ferré has an excellent feel for composition and skillfully uses sketching and color to create situations where objects float, leaving individual thought to establish hierarchies between the most varied objects. The hat represents intelligence, while the pipe and cigar embody the vitality of ideas that create styles and transmit the freshness of each moment.

Although historical avant-garde influences are present in Lázaro Ferré’s work, he is not a simple disciple, but someone who has been able to capture and blend the essence of each moment and make it his own. His stimulating paintings are characterized by their clean lines, while the apparent confusion belies an inner order. Well worth a visit.

JOSEP M. CADENA


Reviews from his exhibition at the Kreisler Gallery in Madrid from February 17 to March 11, 2000.

EL PUNTO DE LAS ARTES
Editor: José Pérez-Guerra
Madrid, 25 February to 2 March 2000

Lázaro Ferré and the Joy of Living
by Julián H. Miranda

Just like Matisse in his famous painting The Joy of Living, where the great French painter evokes a mythical image of the world as he wished it to be in a kind of golden age, in the paintings of José Luis Lázaro Ferré (Barcelona, 1945) there is an idea of universal harmony, whether in the figures, still lifes with or without landscape, or in his somewhat surreal compositions, with that classicist arrangement through which he manages to strike a difficult balance between lyricism and avant-garde elements that take us back to Cezanne and especially Picasso. The Catalan painter studied at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Jorge and later expanded his knowledge of mural painting and engraving. His drawing ability stood out right from the start and he won a number of prestigious awards as a young artist, including the Barcelona City Hall Award and the 14th Sala Parés Youth Painting Prize. Most of his individual exhibits have been held in Catalan cities, though he has also exhibited in Malaga, Cuenca, Logroño and Madrid. The Madrid exhibit was held 24 years ago at the Bética gallery.

Lázaro Ferré now presents about 30 pieces at the Kreisler gallery, including oils and works on paper. He once again demonstrates his warm simplicity in works such as Terrace, by placing a flower pot and fruit on a table with a spacious background that shows us a poetic and unequivocally Mediterranean Sea; The Café, a small still life with fountain pen, spectacles, pipe, black telephone, bottle, glass and oil lamp, with a small frame that provides a hint of the human presence. He does it with that subtlety in the rhythm of greys, which becomes more ironic in Still Life with Fly Swatter. His attraction to the human figure comes out again in Lovers I and II, with a woman listening to a seashell and a man playing the cello with a musicality in the blue tones that endows their bodies with considerable plastic solidity, something that comes out again in Balancing Act, an oil painting on paper with a woman, who has a Cubist air about her, standing on a horse’s back. Thanks to the steady gradation of yellows, the hard profile of her face is somehow accentuated. Musical rhythms, nature and the human figure are present in many of these works, such as The Guitar, the Cat and the Bird; Chess, Violin and Fish; Fruit with Violin and In Tune, where he displays a masterly command of the use of pastels with a violin on a round table delimiting the space. The exhibition also includes his original landscapes of Seville and Sitges, the plasticity and elegance of his somewhat Magritte-style Hats, and the incredible detail of Table with Lemons, with its fluent brushstrokes that draw out the yellows against a greyish background to create a plastic language rife with stylistic coherence.

(Kreisler, Hermosilla 8, Madrid. Until 11 March 2000.)

EXPANSION
25 February 2000
Lázaro Ferré, at the Kreisler

José Luis Lázaro Ferré is an extraordinary landscape artist who uses his artistic sensitivity to explore simplicity and his own inexhaustible creative capacity. His widely varying palette shows that his talent is growing by the day, and he is also a perfectionist because every detail in his paintings is handled with the utmost care.

Moreover, his extensive experience allows him to escape unscathed when applying and mixing colors and when producing his now characteristic chiaroscuros.

All this should draw our attention to the fact that Lázaro Ferré is one of the best artists ...

Artist Collections



Numerous private, corporate, museum, gallery and government collections detailed information coming soon.

Artist Favorites



Jose Luis Munoz Rodriguez, , , Original Painting Acrylic, size_width{of_nature_to_abstraction-1487534731.jpg} X
Original Acrylic Painting, 2017
76 x 90 x 2 cm (19.7 x 28.7)
Jose Luis Lazaro Ferre, , , Original Bas Relief, size_width{adam_and_eve-1499016859.jpg} X
Original Bas Relief, 2017
60 x 60 x 3 cm (19.7 x 28.7)