19TH JUNE – 26TH JUNE 2013 99 Mount Gallery 99 Mount Street, Mayfair, London, W1K 2TF www.99mountstreet.com
Over the last few months, 99 Mount Gallery has had a theme of exhibitions of prominent Spanish artists, the first being that of Tapies, followed by Miro and Dali. Continuing on this theme the gallery is to host of an exhibition by one of Spain’s leading contemporary artists, Felix Anaut.
This small exhibition will cover works from the last 3 years on canvas and paper, and ceramics, plus a couple of earlier bronzes. The theme of the exhibition follows the evolution of his work from an exhibition hosted in Cape Town in 2011 (Barnard Gallery), and a special series of work executed for this exhibition, one of which, a canvas, will be appearing in the contemporary art sales in Sotheby’s (London) at the end of June.
About The Artist
Throughout his career, Anaut has gained wide recognition, with prestigious exhibitions, participation in festivals and biennales, media and critical acclaim, and with many publications. Notably in 2003 at the Florence Biennale he was awarded the Medal of honour for his career, and in 2006 the national Spanish paper, El Mundo, listed him as one of the most influential personalities in the arts. Exhibitions in museums and institutions have included the Waterfront Hall,
Belfast: CAM Museum, Naples: BBK Foundation, Bilbao: Cajalon Foundation, Zaragoza, Spain: Mu- seo de Isaba, Spain: CAC Foundation, Mont de Marsan, France: Musee Marzelles, France.
Works are held in many prestigious private and public collections, notably: British Museum,
London: CAM Museum, Na- ples, Italy: Ulster Museum, Belfast: Musee Marzelles, France: Instituto Cervantes, Dublin & Bordeaux: Instituto Fernando el Catolico, Spain. In 2010 the book “Felix Anaut, his life & work” was published, covering his career to that date, written by the European art collector Michael Simonow. The Simonow collec- tion maintains approximately a 100 works by the artist, and in 2014 a retrospective exhibition of Anaut’s work from the Simonow collection will be held at the Abbaye Flaran in France.
Artist Statement
My work is in constant evolution, there is no beginning or end, and for this reason I always work in series, this gives me freedom to evolve. I never see one work better than another, everything is together. It is like music, music is my inspiration, and in particular Baroque music before 1750, and notably chamber music. Those compositions with chord instruments, violin, violin cello, viola, the slowness of the rhythm allows me to interpret in colour the sounds of these
instruments. Mozart, for example, I like, but I see his compositions as too modern, and in some cases, as with his symphonies with many instruments producing sounds, I find difficult to distinguish and to interpret in colour.
However as music is a composition made up of musical notes and visually abstract, my work follows the same pattern, a series of symbols and forms together making a composition. It was Kandinsky who was a pioneer in the relationship between music and painting, possibly I have taken this much further, as truly I see my work as musical compositions, visual music.
Of course my work is open to other interpretations, but essentially, and as I have always said, it is my instinct that has led me in this direction. Art is a form of human expression, and subjective. I do not want to take it to objective pretentiousness; visual music is my way of expressing myself in life and in my relation between colour and form.
