Antonio Saura (1930–1998) was born in Huesca, Spain. He began teaching himself to paint and write while undergoing five years of medical treatment from 1947. Having initially studied law, Saura moved to Madrid in the early 1950s to devote himself entirely to painting. He became part of the Surrealist movement during two stays in Paris, France between 1952 and 1955; however, he subsequently developed his own distinctive style by techniques such as scraping away layers of paint and abstract expressions with vivid colors. His canvases gradually took on a figurative quality, evolving into his iconic series—“Ladies”, “Nudes”, “Self-portraits”, “Shrouds” and “Crucifixions”—all characterized by a palette of black, gray and brown. He began work on his portrait series, “Dora Maar” or “Dora Maar Visited” in 1983. He also produced works in a variety of media, including prints, sculptures, illustration and stage design. Saura abandoned the role that portraits have historically played—that of depicting a likeness of a specific individual—and extracted unique pictorial elements from the portraits of the great masters, dissolving them to visualize the human animality within the writhing face. His critical perspective on society and the standardization of beauty in Western classical art, coupled with his approach of delving deeply into established motifs such as the cross, paved the way for the social movements in 20th-century art. Saura’s works have been exhibited at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, and have received international acclaim.

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