Gerardo Delgado

(Olivares, Sevilla, 1942 - 2024)

Author's artworks

20th century Spanish


A leading figure in Spanish abstraction, Gerardo Delgado initially trained as an architect before turning his focus to the visual arts in the 1960s. After taking part in the second
exhibition and in the seminars organised at Universidad Complutense’s Computer Centre in Madrid, he had his first solo exhibition in Seville in 1968 and, then in 1972, he took part in the Pamplona Encounters, a landmark event in Spain marking the beginning of greater cultural openness in the final years of Franco’s regime.

His early, more experimental works played with geometric modules, simple structures and flat areas of colour. With the passing of time, he expanded his research into space and colour, creating installations that transcended the conventional boundaries of painting and connected his work with international movements in abstraction.

In the late 1970s, he adopted a more gestural and expressive language in which he also included figurative elements. From the mid-1980s onwards, however, he returned to
and focused his work on the relationship between structure, painterly matter and the perception of space, a concern that would occupy him for the rest of his career.His work was underpinned by an abiding interest in the dialogue between art, science and the creative process.

From his early constructive proposals—based on the idea of open work—he evolved towards installations and paintings in which colour played a key role. From 1978 onwards, he worked on diptychs on wood that explored new spatial relationships, outlining a path that would later lead to abstract forms set against dense, atmospheric backgrounds. During the 1980s, he consolidated a more expressionist language in series such as En la ciudad blanca, El Profeta, Las Ruinas and El Archipiélago, before returning to his investigation of structure and matter in later cycles such as Constelaciones, La naturaleza de las cosas and Rutas.

Taken as a whole, his coherent yet constantly evolving work marks him out as one of the most significant figures in contemporary Spanish abstraction.