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https://www.coleccionbbva.com/es/autor/calvo-javier/
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autor
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Javier Calvo
(Valencia, 1941)
Author's artworks
20th-21st Century Spanish
Calvo trained as a painter at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts of Valencia (1959-1965) and then at the Ècole des Beaux-Arts, in Paris (1967-1968), at the atelier of the Belgian-born French master of
Lyrical Abstraction
A tendency that emerged within abstract painting in 1945 in France, as a reaction against the excessive coldness of
Geometric Abstraction
A term introduced in the 1920s to name a kind of abstract art based on scientific and mathematical principles. The main goal was to eliminate all subjectivity in favour of art based on the essence of geometric forms. Its main champions were Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) and Piet Mondrian (1872-1944).
and attempting to give more room to the expression of the artist’s emotions. The movement favoured colour over form through techniques like watercolour and oil paint, which would be the most widely used by its practitioners. Major sources of inspiration were the painting of Vassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and automatism in Surrealist painting. Key names within the movement are Pierre Soulages (1919), Georges Mathieu (1921-2012) and Hans Hartung (1904-1989).
Gustave Singier (1909-1984), thanks to a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French Government.
In the 1960s and 70s, Calvo took part in two of the exhibitions of the
Antes del Arte
in 1967, the art critic Vicente Aguilera Cerni promoted an art group in Valencia which was the starting point for a new movement grounded in Op and Kinetic art. The mandate of the group was to establish nexuses between science and art. Optical illusions, impossible figures and images deriving from Gestalt psychology were critical elements in its creations.
collective. Similarly to the majority of the members of the group, his interest in mathematics was compatible with a painterly approach akin to geometric
Constructivism
an art and architecture movement born in 1914 in Russia which became known particularly after the October Revolution. The movement defends an active engagement of the artwork with its surrounding space. The term was first used by Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) in 1917 to contemptuously describe a work by Aleksander Rodchenko (1891-1956) and it did not have a positive connotation until the
Realist Manifesto
from 1920.
. The semantic refinement of Calvo’s art can be seen in the expressiveness, neo-figuration and
Constructivism
an art and architecture movement born in 1914 in Russia which became known particularly after the October Revolution. The movement defends an active engagement of the artwork with its surrounding space. The term was first used by Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) in 1917 to contemptuously describe a work by Aleksander Rodchenko (1891-1956) and it did not have a positive connotation until the
Realist Manifesto
from 1920.
in languages that, in one way or another, would influence his practice throughout the years and be reflected in a succession of series in which introspection, figuration and landscape gradually gained more weight.
Calvo is currently a teacher at the School of Visual Arts and Design of Valencia and is a member of the board of Círculo de Moda (Fashion Circle), Valencia.