In my work, painting is photography and photography is painting.
Darío Villalba was born in San Sebastián in 1939 into a family with a long artistic tradition. In 1957, at the age of just 18 and before starting his studies at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, in Madrid, he exhibited for the first time at the Alfil Gallery in the same city. At the same time, he combined these studies with those of Law and Philosophy and Letters. A year later he moved to Paris for a few months, working during this time in the studio of the painter André Lhote. At this time he began his first photographic works, a record of great importance in his work, and which he would usually combine with painting.
Thanks to a scholarship from Harvard University, he moved to the United States in 1962, making his work known and holding several exhibitions in North America. And five years later, in 1967, he returned to Europe, albeit to London, expanding his exhibition route as well as finding a great source of inspiration in the urban environment. His international recognition came in the 1970s, starting in 1970 through the Venice Biennale and only three years later winning the International Painting Prize at the Sao Paulo Biennale. During this period he exhibited mainly in Europe, in spaces such as the Künstlerhaus in Vienna, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels or the Stadt Museum Bochum in Germany.
The 1980s, on the other hand, brought his work to the United States, in both individual and group exhibitions in renowned spaces such as the Charles Cowles Gallery, the Guggenheim in New York or the MoMA. In the last years of his career, he enjoyed anthological exhibitions on his work, such as the one presented in 1994 at the IVAM, and later at the Museet de Samtidskunst in Oslo, or the retrospective organized by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in 2007.
His work stands out mainly for the use of photography as the basis for his pictorial works and research. These are not necessarily made by him, but in many cases he obtains them from various media, decontextualizing them and using them as a support for pictorial elements. We can find this in collections and museums such as the MoMA in New York, the Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid or the Es Baluard Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Palma.
In 2016, the Suñol Foundation dedicated the exhibition ‘Resplandor seco’ to the artist. A collection composed of selected works where photography is the main protagonist and is expressed in collages, direct prints on canvas and also in methacrylate encapsulated works, where the characters become three-dimensional elements.
Sel·lecció d’obres
Sense títol , 1971
Jones , 1974
Pies Vendados , 1974
Pies Vendados , 1974
Sense títol , 1975
Sense títol , 1975
Cabeza, hombre y manos , 1976
Cabeza, hombre y manos , 1976
Amor Krankenhaus o Duren I-II , 1976
Uno roto , 1976
Andrea ist im 76 , 1976
Andrea ist im 76 , 1976
Woman , 1976
Sense títol , 1975
Sense títol , 1978
Sense títol , 1978
Sense títol , 1975
Sense títol , 1975
Sense títol , 1975
Sense títol , 1975
Sense títol , 1975
Sense títol , 1975
Sense títol , 1975
Sense títol , 1975
Cabeza y 79 , 1979
Faz IV , 1978
Parade adolescente , 2009
Sense títol , 1971
Sense títol , 1975
Amor Krankenhaus o Duren I-II , 1976
Woman , 1976
Sense títol , 1975
Sense títol , 1975
Cabeza y 79 , 1979
Jones , 1974
Sense títol , 1975
Uno roto , 1976
Sense títol , 1975
Sense títol , 1975
Sense títol , 1975
Faz IV , 1978
Pies Vendados , 1974
Cabeza, hombre y manos , 1976
Andrea ist im 76 , 1976
Sense títol , 1978
Sense títol , 1975
Sense títol , 1975
Parade adolescente , 2009
Press articles
1915 – 1995
Col·lecció Josep Suñol
Owing to the number of works in the collection, the first show included a selection of the most representative pieces dating from 1915 to...
Signs and Writing
Josep Suñol Collection
Collective exhibition which hosts around fifty works, all of them part of collection funds and carried out between 1972 and...
27 works, 18 artists
Josep Suñol Collection
27 pieces from the Josep Suñol Collection to help expand visitors’ knowledge of 20th-century...
5th Anniversary
Josep Suñol's Collection
A fresh insight into his collection that can help us understand the function of art in...
Continuum
Josep Suñol Collection
A journey through the last ninety years of artistic creation and offers an excellent platform for thinking about 20th-century...
On paper
Josep Suñol Collection
Josep Suñol’s fascination with work on paper is strikingly captured by the fact that over thirty per cent of the pieces in his contemporary art collection are done on...
Nothing Stops
Josep Suñol and Centre d'Art La Panera Collections
Dialogue between the Suñol’s Collection and the collection built up by Lleida City Council over the course of the editions of the Leandre Cristòfol Art...
Dry Resplendence
Darío Villalba
An exhibition that brings together a selection of more than thirty works from the Josep Suñol Collection and Villalba's personal...
Portrait: 1971-1987
Fernando Vijande
We brought together 51 artists to talk about Fernando Vijande, the gallerist who supported the work of all those who exhibited at the Galería Vandrés and the Galería...
Documents and Memory
Act 24: Josep Suñol Collection's archive
Get a better understanding of the reality of culture in the private sphere but with a public...
Intrusive Dialogues. Everything is the present
2021
Museu Nacional d'Art de...
New Images from Spain
1980
Guggenheim Museum, New...
Literartura
Fall 2016
Once a month, we propose a reading that is linked to the artistic field because of its content or...
Guided tours to Darío Villalba. Resplandor seco
Guided tours are offered in Catalan and Spanish. If you want to do a guided tour in english, do not hesitate to contact us to arrange a date to...
Suturas
Darío Villalba as seen by Manuel Segade
Manuel Segade will led a guided tour to the exhibition Darío Villalba. Resplandor...
Literarture
Fall 2017
This fall we take up Literarture, an activity focused in the relationship between art and...
Open days
December 2017 and January 2018
Visit for free the current exhibition at the Fundació Suñol Fernando Vijande. Portrait: 1971-1987 to say goodbye to 2017 and salute the new year...
Guided tours to Fernando Vijande. Portrait: 1971-1987
The Fundació Suñol organizes some commented tours for individual audience through the exhibition Fernando Vijande. Portrait:...
27 works, 18 artists
This exhibition puts together 27 pieces from the Suñol Soler Collection with the aim of expanding knowledge of 20th century...
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