20th-21st Century Spanish

Ignacio García Ergüin was born into a humble Basque family. In 1951 he enrolled at the School of Fine Arts of Bilbao where he trained under the artist José de Lorenzo-Solís Goiri (1916-1981), which would leave a deep impression on him. His work earned wide-spread public recognition at a very early stage, being distinguished on several occasions, most notably winning first prize at the National Painting Award in 1958.

Thanks to a scholarship, he was able to further his training in Munich in the early sixties. Once there, he was exposed to the New and was particularly attracted towards the work of Anselm Kiefer (1945). While there, the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid offered him one of its halls to exhibit his work. This was to be the first of a prolific string of exhibitions in Spain and abroad. In the late-sixties he was already regarded as one of the most successful artists of the time. His travels throughout Europe and the United States in those years gave him many insights into what was happening in art at the time, helping to shape his highly original visual language.

In 1966 he took part in the creation of the , an artists’ collective founded in Biscay as part of the Basque School, a regeneration movement that gathered artists from various generations and styles, like Agustín Ibarrola (1930-2023), Jose María Ucelay (1903-1979) and Pelayo Olaortua (1910-1983).

Throughout his career the artist embraced a wide variety of subject matters. In some of his series he explored themes as varied as New Orleans jazz, Basque sports, or set designs for operas, which he began with Carmen in 1990 and continued with La Bohème (1995) and Manon (1997). Readily visible in his approach is the influence of Spanish painting tradition, particularly of masters like El Greco and Goya, resulting in renderings of heightened expressionism executed with loose and energetic technique. García Ergüin’s practice, and this is true across all his subject matters, saw a gradual rapprochement to , with surfaces rich in gestures and nuances.

With his inquisitive and peripatetic spirit, García Ergüin’s paintings gave a good account of the places he frequented, standing out among them his views of Castile and the Spanish coast. Equally worth mentioning are his depictions of Bermeo and particularly of Lanzarote, where he set up a small studio and established connections with the circle of César Manrique (1919-1992). The island’s environment exerted a strong impact on him, noticeable in all the work he created from the seventies onwards.

His works are included in important collections, like those of the Reina Sofía Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao or International House in New Orleans. Highly appreciated and valued in the Basque Country, in 2004 he was named Illustrious Citizen of Bilbao and in 2017, Sala Ondare, also in Bilbao, organised a major exhibition of his work.