LUIS FEITO

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed orally by the artist, February 2020, Madrid. We thank Mr. Feito for his kind support.

Provenance:
- Private collection Switzerland.
- By descent to the present owner, since then private collection Austria.

Exhibition: Basel 1970, Moon and Space. Galerie Beyeler, January - March 1970, No. 27 (verso with the label).

Luis Feito was born on 31 October 1929 in Madrid, where he still lives today. The Spaniard is one of the most influential exponents of Spanish Informel art.
He studied at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, where he graduated in 1950. As early as 1954, he had his first exhibition at Galería Buchholz. Armed with a scholarship, in 1953 Feito got to know the city of Paris, where he moved two years later and would remain for 25 years. In Paris he became acquainted with Informel artists such as Jean Fautrier, Hans Hartung, as well as Serge Poliakoff, Jean Dubuffet and Mark Rothko. These new impressions, his contact with artists, and the energy of the city led him to experiment with various materials such as sand in his paintings. He remained in touch with the artists of the Spanish avant-garde, however, and was one of the founding members of the group El Paso. In 1981 Feito moved to Montreal and then two years later to New York, returning to Madrid in the early 1990s.

During his studies and the period afterwards, Feito focussed on figurative painting but, having discovered Cubism, he turned away from figuration and soon dedicated himself to Informel art. Already in his first exhibition he showed only abstract works. In the late 1950s and early 1960s his colour palette was exclusively black and white, with shades of grey or ochre. He increasingly used materials such as sand and soil, in order to achieve an impastoed surface which is characteristic of his mature work. Through the dense, uneven surface he was able to explore the relationship between light, surface, colour and form. In the 1960s Feito then added red to his palette, which at times dominates the entire composition.

Luis Feito took part in numerous exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide. On four occasions (1956, 1958, 1960 and 1968) his works were shown at the Venice Biennale, twice in San Paolo, and in 1959 he was represented at the documenta in Kassel. In 2002 the Reina Sofía museum of art organised a touring retrospective. In 1985 he was appointed Officer and then in 1993 Knight Commander of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres de France.
The present work “No. 206” dates from 1960, when Feito’s colour palette was dominated by black and white. From a deep black space, a white form glows on the left edge of the picture, which appears to illuminate that side of the work. It is almost as though a point of light is pushing through from behind a black cloud. The impastoed technique with the dark colours gives the impression of a landscape of craters. The consummate use of the impastoed surfaces lends the work an unbelievable depth and dynamism.