Antonio Saura is a Spanish painter and writer born in 1930 in Huesca (Spain) and died in 1998 in Cuenca.

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Self-taught, he began to paint and write in 1947 in Madrid, when he was stricken with tuberculosis. Antonio Saura creates many drawings and paintings that he himself qualifies as surreal. He most often represents imaginary landscapes for which he uses a flat, smooth and richly colored material. Between 1948 and 1950, he created the Constellations series, in which he was influenced by Miro and surrealism. His first personal exhibition was organized in 1950 in Zaragoza.

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Stays in Paris in 1952, 1954 and 1955, made him meet and work with the surrealist group. Disappointed by this experience, he develops an informal, spontaneous and expressive painting. He then uses the scraping technique, adopts a gestural style and abstract painting. Henceforth he took refuge in a more physical style, as explained in an article in Le Monde in 1994, signed Harry Bellet: "When I moved away from surrealism, I gave myself a subject - the female body - as a matrix for constructions black and white paintings. And little by little, other themes came to be associated with it. » . Indeed, from 1956, Saura undertakes large series,Ladies, Nudes, Self-Portraits, Shrouds, Crucifixions, which he paints both on canvas and on paper. He affirms his own style that is independent of the movements and trends of his generation.

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Indeed, to free himself from the constraints of the Francoist society, he founded the El Paso group in 1957. The group's manifesto expresses the wish to create a new pictorial style, which advocates the rejection of classical criteria: figuration, composition, balance, beauty. These years saw the development of Spanish Art Informel, of which Antoni Tapies was one of the main members.

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In 1959, he illustrated in an original way numerous works such as Don Quixote by Cervantes, 1984 by Orwell, Pinochio in the adaptation by Nöstlinger, Tagebücher by Kafka, Three visions by Quevedo, and many others.

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From 1971 to 1979, he abandoned painting on canvas to devote himself to writing, drawing and painting on paper. From 1977, Antonio Saura began publishing his writings, produced several scenographies for theatre, ballet and opera.

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Often plagued by illness, he remains a subversive painter, and a personality in the world of the arts.

The Antonio Saura Archives foundation was created in 2006 by the Antonio Saura estate, in Geneva, with the aim of disclosing the work of the artist, of publishing all of his writings as well as the catalogs raisonnés of his graphic works. and painted.