Agustín Ibarrola (18 August 1930 – 17 November 2023) was a Spanish painter and sculptor.

Biography

Ibarrola was born in

Basauri Basauri is a major municipality of Biscay, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, an Autonomous Community in northern Spain. The town is a part of the Greater Bilbao conurbation, being only a few kilometers south of Bilbao. ...

Biscay Biscay ( ; ; ), is a province of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the Bay of Biscay, eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilb ...

Basque Autonomous Community Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous com ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. In 1948, the Delegation of Biscay and the city council of

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

granted him a scholarship to study in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, where he lived until 1955. Ibarrola had various exhibitions in Spain and in 1955 was transferred to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. In 1957, he was a member of the group Equipment 57 with Duarte, Serrano, and others. This was in the time of constructivism. Due to his

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

militancy, he was imprisoned for several years in the prison of

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...

. In 1963, when an exhibition of his work in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

was mounted, a critic compared his work with

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, an ...

's '' The Disasters of War''. In the 1980s he began sculpting; this inspired him to create the Oma Forest near Guernica, which is perhaps his best known work. The piece is currently being relocated to the nearby Basobarri Forest due to a fungal infection destroying the original painted trees. Ibarrola's work combined the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

spirit with the social commitment of the humblest workers, people who tend towards

expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

. One of his last and most spectacular works was ''Cubes of Memory'', in the port of Llanes. In later years he was tied to the founder of the platform ¡Basta Ya!, a civic group fighting against

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

in the Basque Country. Due to his bitter opposition to

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

, a group proscribed as terrorist by the Spanish state, Ibarrola was threatened by ETA. Ibarrola was awarded the Medal of the Order of the Constitutional Merit. Ibarrola was known for his land art. One of his most famous works is Ibarrola's forest, where he painted many trees with a lot of colours creating a beautiful combination of nature and colours. Agustín Ibarrola died on 17 November 2023, at the age of 93.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibarrola, Agustin 1930 births 2023 deaths People from Basauri Basque painters 20th-century Spanish painters 20th-century Spanish male artists Spanish male painters 21st-century Spanish painters Recipients of the Order of Constitutional Merit 21st-century Spanish male artists