Salvador Victoria

(Rubielos de Mora, Teruel, 1928- Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, 1994)

Author's artworks
20th Century Spanish

Salvador Victoria was a key figure in the renewal of Spanish painting in the second half of the twentieth century. Though born in the province of Teruel, due to the Civil War his family moved to Valencia. There he started studying at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts where he received an academic training profoundly influenced by the so-called luminism of Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923). After graduating, and disappointed with the rigid traditionalism prevalent in Spain at the time, he moved for a time to Ibiza, where he entered into contact for the first time with European avant-garde movements. While living there he met many northern European artists who aroused in him a keen interest in abstract painting.

In 1951 he had his first solo show at Círculo Artístico y Literario in Granada. In 1956, encouraged by his experience in Ibiza, he decided to move to Paris, at the time the capital of the artistic and cultural avant-garde. There he got to know the main players in Spanish abstraction, such as Eusebio Sempere (1923-1985) and Lucio Muñoz (1929-1988), with whom he exhibited in group shows. In addition, he regularly attended concerts, conferences and exhibitions that introduced him to
and
, the happening movements of the time. The period he spent in Paris, almost ten years, proved decisive in his evolution towards matter-based abstraction in which one can observe the influence of oriental calligraphy. In 1960 he took part in the XXX Venice Biennale, where he would exhibit again in 1968 and 1972, and founded the Tempo group. Salvador Victoria rounded off all these artistic experiences with wide reading of fundamental theoretical texts, including Writings on Form and Design Theory, by Paul Klee (1879-1940) and Point and Line to Plane and Concerning the Spiritual in Art, by Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944). These artists’ ideas on the purity of graphic work and their experimentation with geometric forms, with a special emphasis on the circle, would formally and conceptually condition Victoria’s future work.

In the mid-sixties he returned to Spain, settling in Madrid. Coinciding with his return, he joined the roster of artists associated with Galería Juana Mordó, which had opened in 1964. In 1967 he exhibited at the São Paulo Biennial and one year later he had his first solo show at the aforementioned gallery.

At that time, his works underwent a complete reordering of space and a formal synthesis. This shift can be seen in his curvilinear canvas collages that he would continue to explore throughout the rest of his career. The circle, the pyramid and other geometric forms would become the core elements of his works, imbuing them with volume and a liveliness through the use of warm colours including gold, red and purple.

Salvador Victoria’s work is both circular and coherent, the result of constant experimentation that would take him along the paths of Informalismo and geometric refinement until finding a completely personal language all of his own, underwritten by purity, light, form and gesturality.

Salvador Victoria died on 27 June 1994 in Alcalá de Henares following a sudden illness.
His works have been included in numerous exhibitions in Spain and worldwide, and are in the collections of many prestigious institutions, including Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Museo de Arte Abstracto Español in Cuenca, the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao.