Pablo Serrano ┃ Sculpture and graphic work

A finalist at the Venice Biennale, finishing behind Giacometti, and the only Spanish artist, along with Picasso, to have exhibited during his lifetime at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Pablo Serrano is considered one of the most important sculptors in history. Recipient of countless awards and a member of the El Paso group alongside Saura, Viola , Canogar, and Millares, Pablo Serrano created a body of work found in major collections and museums worldwide, such as the MoMA in New York and the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, as well as in several public buildings in Spain and Latin America. Acquire a work by Pablo Serrano!

Biography

Pablo Serrano (Crivillén - Teruel 1908, Madrid 1985) trained in Barcelona. In 1930 he emigrated to Montevideo, dedicating himself to sculpture. Five years later he completed his first major commission: bronze doors for the crypt of a school in Rosario, Argentina. Between 1952 and 1953, Serrano carved a second set of doors in cedar wood, this time for the Palacio de la Luz (Palace of Light) in Montevideo; a work that displays notable influences of abstract forms, acquired through the Uruguayan painter Joaquín Torres García.

In 1954, Pablo Serrano returned to Spain. During the following years, he traveled extensively throughout various European countries. In 1957, he joined the Spanish artistic avant-garde and participated in the formation of the El Paso group, which also included the Aragonese painters Antonio Saura and Manuel Viola . This group also featured a woman, Juana Francés, from Alicante, who later married Pablo Serrano.

From then on, Pablo Serrano's sculpture began to take shape with a personal expressionist style, using materials such as slag and wrought iron. Serrano worked with the human figure and portraiture (see his portraits of Unamuno, Miguel Labordeta, and Antonio Machado).

His most important works are the two large sculptures of Saint Valerius and the Guardian Angel that flank the Zaragoza City Hall (1965), as well as the large relief of the Arrival of the Virgin of the Pillar (1969) on the façade of the Basilica. Among other monumental sculptures, the Monument to the Female Farmer of Teruel (1976), located in Teruel, and a sculpture created for Opel in 1982 and installed in its industrial park in Figueruelas, also stand out.

Pablo Serrano received numerous accolades: in 1967 he was elected a member of the European Society of Culture in Venice, and in 1969 he was appointed a member of the Royal Academy of Flanders (Belgium). In 1980 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the City of Zaragoza, in 1981 he was named a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, and in 1983 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Zaragoza. In 1994, the Pablo Serrano Museum was established in Zaragoza, housing the majority of his work.

Overwhelmingly authentic, nothing about Pablo Serrano was artificial. Poet, philosopher, and humanist, Serrano expressed his concerns both through expansive volumes laden with metaphysics and through manifestos, declarations, stances, and conversations where the human condition in all its facets always shone through. For Serrano, art was a social responsibility and the very extension of his
personality. He was fascinated by, and always wanted to emphasize, the importance of communicating with each other and of internalizing and sharing the most intimate parts of ourselves.

AWARDS
1944. Gold Medal of the National Salon of Visual Arts. Montevideo, Uruguay
1951. Gold Medal of the National Salon of Visual Arts. Montevideo, Uruguay
1954. Gold Medal of the National Salon of Visual Arts. Montevideo, Uruguay
1955. Grand Prize of the II National Biennial Salon of Visual Arts. Montevideo, Uruguay
Grand Prize of the III Hispano-American Art Biennial, Barcelona
1961. Julio González Prize at the Salón de Mayo, Barcelona
1971. Grand Prize of the 1st International Sculpture Exhibition, Budapest
1980. Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts
1982. Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts
1984. Aragon Prize for the Arts.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1953. Tate Gallery, London

1957. Ateneo of Madrid

Syra Gallery, Barcelona
1958. Galerie Édouard Loeb, Paris
1959. Neblí Room, Madrid
Galería del Disegno, Milan 1974. Sala Art, Marbella
1975. Gaudí Room - Gaudifond Art. Barcelona
1978. “Retrospektive Pablo Serrano” Galerie Roswitha Haftmann, Zurich
1979. “The Bread” Galerie Darthea Speyer, Paris
1980. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
1982. Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, Moscow
1987. Accademia Spagnola di Storia, Archeologia e Belle Arti. Italy
1989. ARCO'89 Gallery Series
1991. "Exposition Anthologique (1908-1985)” Palace of the Congress of Europe, Stasburgo 1996. El Monte Foundation. Villasí Exhibition Hall. Seville.
1996. Pablo Picasso Birthplace Museum, Málaga
1998. Torres García Museum, Montevideo
2003. “Pablo Serrano, Spanish Art for the World” SEACEX, Buenos Aires, Rosario de Santa Fe, Santiago de Chile, La Paz and Brasilia
2008. ARCO'08, South Gallery
2010. ARCO'10, Cayón Gallery
2018. ARCO'18, Aragon Pavilion
2019. Goya-Fuendetodos Cultural Consortium of the Provincial Council of Zaragoza, Fuendetodos

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1957. Bucholz Gallery, Madrid
1960. “New Spanish painting and sculpture” MoMA, New York
1961. Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York
New London Gallery, London
Rodin Museum, Paris
Galleria l'Attico, Rome
1962. Marlborough Gallery, London
Lever House, New York
1963. Galleria L'Annunciata, Milan
1964. World's Fair, New York
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
1967. Guggenheim International Exhibition, New York
1971. Musée Rodin, Paris
MoMA, New York
1973. Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art, Madrid
Reina Sofia National Art Centre Museum, Madrid
Middleheim Museum, Antwerp
Musée National d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1975. Multiple Gallery 4.17, Madrid
1985. Guggenheim Museum, New York

WORKS IN MUSEUMS
Open Air Sculpture Museum of Alcalá de Henares.
Reina Sofía National Art Centre Museum, MNCARS, Madrid
Juan March Foundation, Madrid
Banco Santander Foundation, Madrid
AENA Foundation, Madrid
National Library of Spain, Madrid
Public Art Museum, Madrid
Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Madrid
Collection of the Congress of Deputies, Madrid
ADIF Collection, Madrid
Collection of the 1st International Exhibition of Sculpture in the Street of Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Open Air Sculpture Museum of Alcalá de Henares, Madrid
Museum of Fine Arts, Bilbao
ARTIUM Basque Museum-Centre of Contemporary Art, Vitoria
Museum of Spanish Abstract Art, Cuenca
Patio Herreriano Museum, Valladolid
Picasso Museum, Malaga
MUPAM, Municipal Heritage Museum, Malaga
CAAC, Andalusian Centre for Contemporary Art, Seville
CAAM, Atlantic Centre of Modern Art, Las Palmas
MACA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Alicante
Pablo Serrano Museum, Zaragoza
CDAN, Center for Art and Nature, Huesca
Julio Gavín Drawing Museum, Larrés Castle, Huesca
Pablo Serrano Contemporary Art Centre in Crivillén (Teruel)
Es Baluard, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Palma
Autonomous University of Barcelona
Polytechnic University of Valencia
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
Vatican Museums, Vatican City
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy
Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Venice, Italy
Henraux Museum, Querceta, Lucca, Italy
Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Middelheim Museum, Antwerp, Belgium
National Gallery of Budapest, Hungary
Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
Marlborough Gallery, London, United Kingdom
MoMA Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, USA
Brown University Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Wadsworth Atheneum Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Clear Lake City University, Houston, Texas, USA
Indianapolis Museum of Art 'IMA', Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA
MNAV, National Museum of Visual Arts, Montevideo, Uruguay
Salvador Allende Museum of Solidarity, Santiago, Chile
Ponce Art Museum, Puerto Rico
Rio Piedras Museum, Puerto Rico