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Enrique Tábara

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Tábara in his studio showing some of his Bocetos.
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Tábara in his studio showing some of his Bocetos.

Guisa, oil on canvas, 1952.
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Guisa, oil on canvas, 1952.

Paseantes en Diagonal, oil on canvas, 1982.
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Paseantes en Diagonal, oil on canvas, 1982.


Pantelones y Zapatos, oil on canvas, 1984.

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Pantelones y Zapatos, oil on canvas, 1984.









Sol en La Playa, oil on canvas, 1982.

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Sol en La Playa, oil on canvas, 1982.









Shrubs, tizo and pastel on paper, 1994.

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Shrubs, tizo and pastel on paper, 1994.









Mountains in Black & White, oil on canvas, 2001.

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Mountains in Black & White, oil on canvas, 2001.









Arbol Mítico, oil on canvas, 1987.

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Arbol Mítico, oil on canvas, 1987.









Gran Arbol, oil on canvas, 1988.

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Gran Arbol, oil on canvas, 1988.









Tábara Exhibit at the MAAC in Guayaquil, 2004-2005.

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Tábara Exhibit at the MAAC in Guayaquil, 2004-2005.









Inside Tábara's studio in Guayaquil.

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Inside Tábara's studio in Guayaquil.







Enrique Tábara (b. 1930, Guayaquil, Ecuador) (Luis Enrique Tábara) is a master Latin American painter and teacher representing a whole Hispanic pictorial and artistic culture. 





Rojo Azul Enstructurado, oil on wood, 1978.

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Rojo Azul Enstructurado, oil on wood, 1978.





Tábara took interest in painting at the age of three and was drawing regularly by the age of six. In these early years he was strongly encouraged by both his sister and his mother. Enrique Tábara nevertheless is a creator who investigates and demystifies the image in which he takes refuge. Tábara's energetic and innovating spirit is a constant that reveals the anxious and versatile spirit of the teacher. A master of experimentation, he is fully aware of his roots and the process that he has followed over the years, with an abundant mass of brilliant works to show for it. 


Tábara was greatly influenced by the Constructivist Movement, founded around 1915 by Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin, which made its way into Europe and Latin America by way of Uruguayan painter Joaquin Torres Garcia and Parisian/Ecuadorian painter Manuel Rendón. Torres Garcia and Rendón both made an enormous impact on Latin America's master artists such as Enrique Tábara, Aníbal Villacís, Félix Arauz, Theo Constanté, Oswaldo Viteri, Estuardo Maldonado and Carlos Catasse, to name a few. 





Contents





The Barcelona Years




Composicion Espacial, oil on canvas, 1956.

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Composicion Espacial, oil on canvas, 1956.





In 1946, Tábara attended the School of Beautiful Arts in Guayaquil and was mentored by German artist Hans Michaelson and Guayaquileno artist, Luis Martinez Serrano. In 1951, Tábara finished mastering the fundamentals and left art school. Tábara's early works typically depicted grotesque characters, marginalized peoples of Guayaquil, prostitutes, and some portraits. By 1953, Tábara began to paint more abstract images. 


Tábara held his first US exhibit in 1954 at the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C. In 1955, the Ecuadorian government offered Tábara a scholoarship to study at the Escuela Oficial de Bellas Artes de Barcelona (The "Llotja", Catalan for "Exchange", the school had originally been named "Academy of the Exchange"). Tábara's work was welcomed with great success in Spain and Tábara befriended surrealist Andre Breton and Modernist painter Joan Miró. By 1959, Tábara's work had gained a great deal of international attention. Andre Breton asked Tábara to represent Spain in the Homage to Surrealism Exhibition, among the works of Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, and Eugenio Granell. Miró enthusiastically praised Tábara's work and presented Tábara with an original piece of his artwork which Tábara has long treasured as pure gold. 


While living in Barcelona, Tábara began working with Antoni Tàpies, Antonio Saura, Manolo Millares and many other Spanish Infomalist artists. These artists were members of the first Post-War Movement in Spain known as Dau-al-Set, founded by Catalan poet Joan Brossa. Tábara was adopted into this group and wrote several articles for their publication of the same name, Dau-al-Set. Dau-al-Set was connected with Surrealism and Dadaism and its members sought a connection to both the conscious and unconscious in their work. Dau-al-Set opposed both the Formalist Movement and the formal art centers. The group was inspired by the early works of Max Ernst, Paul Klee, and Joan Miró.


In 1963, Tábara represented Ecuador together with Humberto Moré and Theo Constanté at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris for the Third Biennial of Paris. By 1964, Tábara's work was being shown throughout Latin America, as well as, Lausanne, Milan, Grenchen, Vienna, Lisbon, Munich, Barcelona, Madrid, Washington, New York and Paris.



The Return to Ecuador

After living and painting in Europe for over nine years Tábara felt that there was not enough being done in the name of Latin American Modern art so he returned to Ecuador in search of a new aesthetic. On his return to Ecuador in 1964, Tábara reconnected to his roots through the Latin American current of "ancestralism", which finds inspiration in pre-Hispanic cultures that inhabited the continent (third stage). Tábara is the first artist to use the Pre-Colombian motif as a search for a new aesthetic. 


Shortly after returning to Ecuador, Tábara founded the Informalist art group, VAN (National Artistic Vanguard) that was in opposition to the Indigenists. VAN consisted of Tábara, Villacís, Maldonado, Cifuentes, Molinari, Almeida, and Muriel. VAN strongly opposed the Communist political views of Oswaldo Guayasamin and was always in search of new artistic pathways while never losing a connection to their roots.



Patas-Patas

Finally, Tábara started to paint simple shapes inspired in nature, and also other simple structures, such as his famed "Patas-Patas", or Feet-Feet, as well as insects and shrubs. Tábara is most known for his Patas-Patas works which contain legs with feet incorporated into the piece. When asked about this subject matter, Tábara says that one day he was drawing a figure but he didn't like it, so he ripped it up and the feet of the figure landed at his feet, thus his fate. It has been suggested by some critics that Tábara's use of feet was possibly a subtle statement in opposition to Guayasamin's use of hands. In some of Tábara's Patas-Patas works, the legs are bold focal points that stand out clearly. In other works, the legs are more obscure or seem to be hidden within shrubs, bones or abstract forms. 


Tábara is an artist who is in a constant, infinite search. He likes to experiment and live "pictorical adventures". He believes that in art one has to pose difficult problems for oneself and solve them on the canvas. Today, Tábara is considered one of the most important artists of the last century. 


Tábara continues to paint with a vigorous spirit in his home town of Guayaquil, Ecuador. Barcelona is considered Tábara's home away from home.



Museums & Collections



Individual Exhibitions



Awards & Medals



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