Sofía Gandarias

Gandarías was a Spanish painter, born in Guernica in the Basque Country. She graduated in Fine Arts from the Facultad de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Universidad Complutense, Madrid.

Music had been a powerful influence on her life. In 1978 she painted Kokoscha-Alma Mahler, three characters whose interrelated destinies are representative of their Zeitgeist. This was the beginning of an intense artistic output in series such as "La protesta del silencio" (1980) or "Presencias" (1986). “Gandarias contemplates her models, living or dead, with a gaze like that of a seer or a somnambulist, in order to give them form ” from within” and to release their voices.“(Roa Bastos)

She married Enrique Barón Crespo in Venice in 1987. Her son Alejandro was born the following year. She resumed her work with a big retrospective exhibition in Venice, the city which is her inspiration, in 1990. Her commitment to world peace and culture was expressed in her exhibition “Pour la tolerance” at the Grande Arche de la Fraternité, Paris. This was opened by Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Simone Veil and Barbara Hendricks, whose portrait “Love Prayer” was the symbol of the show which celebrated the 50th Anniversary of UNESCO. She painted the portrait of the great virtuoso violinist Yehudi Menuhin “the wisest man I have ever met” and began to cooperate with his Foundation.

She devoted the year 2000 to the study of Primo Levi's “Se questo è un uomo” (“If this is a man”) which resulted in the series "Primo Levi, la memoria". After the attack in New York City she painted the tableau NY 9/11 a series of 13 paintings, from which “Miserere Julianna” is going on display at the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

The series “Kafka, the visionary” a series of 64 paintings was exhibited in the Haus am Kleistpark (Berlin), Ariowitsch Haus(Leipzig) and Czech Center- Instituto Cervantes (Prag). José Saramago wrote about it “God has not read Kafka”.

Amongst the artists who had most marked her life Gandarias identified Velázquez, Goya and Bacon, along with her teacher and mentor Manuel Villaseñor.

She was a member of the Board of the Fundación Yehudi Menuhin Foundation (Spain) and of the Scientific Committee of the “Istituto Internazionale per l'Opera e la Poesia di Verona “ (UNESCO).

She was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2005 and was granted the Légion d'honneur of the French Republic in 2010.

• 1978 “Kokoschka, Malher and Alma”
• 1981/82 “Protesta del silencio”, Trip to the Middle East, portrait of Queen Noor of Jordan.
• 1982/85 “Presences” Series: portraits of Roa Bastos, García Lorca, Asturias, Bergamín, Borges, Carpentier, Carranza, Rosalía de Castro, Cortázar, Dalí, Ruben Darío, Rómulo Gallegos, Guimaraes Rosa, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Juan Carlos Onetti, Ortega y Gasset, Octavio Paz, Juan Rulfo, Cesar Vallejo. Portraits of Doris Lessing and Graham Greene.
• 1985 Travels to Mexico and visits “La Casa Azul”(Coyoacán)
• 1987 Marriage to Enrique Barón Crespo in Venice
• 1988 Birth of her son Alejandro.
• 1990 Portraits of “Alejandro con el caballito”, Melina Mercouri and Antoni Clavé.
• 1991/92 “Alejandro en el Florián”, Portraits of Nureyev, Bacon, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, self-portrait with Delvaux, beginning of series “Toreo y Ballet”, “Amore a Venecia”,”Arte contra violencia”, “Tríptico Sarajevo”, Iris.
• 1993 Portraits of Yehudi Menuhin, Aligi Sassu and Helenita Olivares. “Direction Femmes” with Simone Veil– Frida Kahlo, Choc de civilisations, Brel Seriesand Gorila Kumba.
• 1994 “Love Prayer” with Barbara Hendricks, “The wounded hand” (Sarajevo) with Susan Sontag and Juan Goytisolo; portraits of Hugo Claus, François Mitterrand, Emile Veranneman, Carlos Fuentes; trip to Mexico.
• 1995 Portraits of Rafael Alberti, Saramago, Pessoas’, le Spectateur ( Casares-Camus) and “The Money”
• 1996 “Le temps des cerises (Piaf –Montand), Portraits of René Cassin and Sami Nair.
• 1997 Portrait of Semprún, La Poésie Series, Les Réves de Buñuel, Le Chat Mondain.
• 1998 “Les oiseaux en Prêt-à-porter et haute couture” Series, Kumba hot-line, La Chatte mondaine.
• 1999 Guernica Triptych, Stop-Ahead, Iris
• 2000 Primo Levi, la memoria
• 2001/02 Series NY 9/11
• 2003 Portraits of Maria Callas and Jorge Edwards, Iris.
• 2004 Messaggio, I bravi, Cardinali veneziani
• 2004//5 “El llanto de las flores” Madrid-11 M
• 2006 Alicia ( El llanto de las flores), begins Kafka
• 2007/9 “Kafka, der visionär” Series, portrait of Vargas Llosa
• 2010 Begins “Gandhara”, portraits of Edgar Morin and Gabriela Mistral,
• 2011 “El coloquio de los perros”, “Silencios: Gandhara”
• 2012 “Bankers’ brunch in Wall St”; “Greed: the graves of Mankind”
• 2013 “Peggy’s Tango (The Muppets)”; “Encerrados”
• 2014 “Il método Bertone”; “Ballo in maschera”

• - “The face and the mirror”, José Saramago
• - “The significance of portrait for Sofía Gandarias”, Augusto Roa Bastos.
• - “Art against violence” Carlos Fuentes
• - “UNESCO’s year of tolerance”, Simone Veil
• - “Sarajevo”, Juan Goytisolo
• - “ tableau tragique et enchanté ” Sami Nair, texts of catalogue “Pour la tolérance » Arche Fraternité, Paris, 1996
• - “Guernica”, Kosme de Barañano
• - “Presencias Instantes” Francisco Jarauta
• - “The linx eye interpretation”, Edward Malefakis. Texts of catalogue R.Aacademia de España”, Roma
• - “Die Ausstellung „Kafka, der Visionär”, Michael Nungesser, Der Club Bertelsmann
• - “Dio non ha letto Kafka”, José Saramago, 6/7/2010

• Sofía Gandarias - Official Web site.