Fernando Leal Audirac
Fernando Leal Audirac, Self-Portrait 1975-1976
Born(1958-11-16)16 November 1958
Mexico City
NationalityMexican
Known forPainting
MovementRealism, figurative art

Fernando Leal Audirac (born 16 November 1958 in Mexico City, Mexico) is a visual artist, painter,[1] sculptor, etcher and designer. He is a specialist of classical painterly techniques, such as fresco, encaustic, egg tempera, oil, that he reinterprets in a contemporary key, combining them with modern technology.[2][3]

Life

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Fernando Leal Audirac was born in Mexico City into a family of artists. His father Fernando Leal (1896–1964) was one of the founders of the Mexican Muralist movement of the Twenties.[4]

From 1974 to 1978, Fernando Leal Audirac studied Medieval and Renaissance painterly techniques under the direction of Master Guillermo Sánchez Lemus. Together with Professor Manuel Serrano, he founded in 1978 the "Restauro" workshop in Mexico City, specializing in the research of contemporary reinterpretation of the classic artistic techniques such as fresco, encaustic, egg tempera and oil painting.[5][6]

In the period from 1980 to 1985 he practiced lithography and etching at the "Taller de Gráfica Popular" with Master Printmaker José Sánchez.

1989 to 1993, he was a founding member and academic tutor of the Curatorial Commission of the Mexican National Council for the Arts (Comisión Consultiva del FONCA).[7]

In the 1980s, he founded an intellectual Salon (the Friday Group) at his home, attended by prominent personalities of the international cultural scene, among whom: Juan Acha, Arturo González Cosío, Ernesto de la Peña, Michael Tracy, José Luis Cuevas, Miguel Peraza, Phil Kelly, Mahia Biblos, Jens Jesen, Pierre Restany, Shifra Goldman, Arnold Belkin, Francis Alÿs, and Jan William.

In 1993 he was the first artist of his generation to have a solo exhibition at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. In 1995 he represented Mexico at the Centennial of the Venice Biennale, where he exhibited again in 2001. In 1996 he was appointed guest professor at École nationale supérieure d'art in Nancy, France.

He has shown his works in galleries and museums in the US, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Hungary, Romania, Korea and Latin America. He has written numerous essays on art and literature and participated in several international symposia regarding art, science and environment organized by the European Environmental Tribunal.[8][9]

Since 1993, he lives between Milan, Italy and Mexico City.

Works

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Fernando Leal Audirac, The Gardens of Erbaluce, 2009 (encaustic)

Transportable frescos

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Leal Audirac has developed a particular type of transportable frescoes on double-curved synthetic surfaces which constitute a fragment of an imaginary architectural space.[10] He has executed in 2004 the life "Portrait of Pope John Paul II" which is considered as one of the largest papal portraits in the world.[11][12]

Oil paintings

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Fernando Leal Audirac, The Invisible Cat, 2009-2010 (oil on linen)

Two oil paintings that are central in his production are Image of the Absolute (1977–1991), which was exhibited in 1992 in the Frankfurter Kunstverein and The Shadow and the Night with which he participated in the Venice Biennale in 1995. Juan Acha, Jorge Juanes, Peter Weiermair and Pierre Restany have written extensively on these works.

Encaustic

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This ancient Greek-Roman technique, revitalized by 20th century American artists such as Fernando Leal and Jasper Johns, has been central to Leal Audirac's research. In November 2010 he has exposed a new series of large format encaustics at Art Seefeld Galerie in Zürich. The Value of a Brushstroke and The Gardens of Erbaluce belong to this collection.

Egg tempera

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Focusing on a synthesis between Western and Eastern traditions, Leal Audirac executed in 1994 the painterly-graphic work entitled The Finite Stream, a large format painting (2x20 m) in which he reconstructed the ancient technique of egg tempera by analyzing the Eastern graphic problem of Linearity from a Western painterly perspective.[13]

Multimedia

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Since 2008 he has been working on a multimedia project entitled The Invisible Cat, conceived around an imaginary painting inspired by Francisco de Goya. The project combines painting, sculpture, 3D animation and installations.

Design

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Ehécatl. 2014

He is also designer in the super-luxury car and yachting sector. In 2009 he executed a painterly intervention on the Catalan sportive car Tramontana R with a special type of metallic paint, enriched with gold and precious gems powder, making it one of the most expensive cars in the world. Based on the executive plans of the Tramontana car and of a yacht, he developed a series of mathematical sculptures, like The Golden Sea and Touch me that change color with light and the spectator's movements, shimmering from purple to cobalt blue and from gold to green.

Exhibitions

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Personal Exhibitions (selected)

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Collective exhibitions (selected)

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Literature

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Monographs

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Exhibition catalogues

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Works illustrated by Fernando Leal Audirac

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References

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  1. ^ New York Media, LLC (5 May 1997). New York Magazine. New York Media, LLC. pp. 104–. ISSN 0028-7369.
  2. ^ Corgnati, Martina (2004). Fernando Leal Audirac: La Stagione Che Rimane. Silvana Editoriale. p. 26. ISBN 978- 8882156428.
  3. ^ "Editors & Contributors: Fernando Leal Audirac". Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  4. ^ Flores, Tatiana E. (2013). Mexico's Revolutionary Avant-Gardes: From Estridentismo to ¡30–30!. Yale University Press. p. 376. ISBN 978-0300184488.
  5. ^ Serafini, Giuliano. Fernando Leal Audirac: Traducción: Elissabeta Di Castro (PDF). pp. 31–35.
  6. ^ "El Antirretrato Del Dr. Villanueva. Ocho oleos de Fernando Leal Audirac. Estudio crítico por Juan Acha" (in Spanish). Galeria de Arte Mexicano. 1991. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  7. ^ "Fernando Leal Audirac: o en el gran estilo" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  8. ^ "Fernando Leal Audirac". European Environmental Tribunal. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  9. ^ "El arte de devolver belleza" (in Spanish). 7 August 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  10. ^ Rossi, Sergio (2012). Arte come fatica di mente : da Leonardo al Novecento. Lithos editrice – Roma. p. 169. ISBN 978-8897414223.
  11. ^ "En la Plaza de San Pedro con Juan Pablo II" (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  12. ^ "Fernando Leal Audirac. El artista mexicano que retrató a Su Santidad Juan Pablo II" (in Spanish). Real Estate- Market & Lifestyle. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  13. ^ Acha, Juan, "Su estética gráfica", in: Fernando Leal Audirac, Obra de 1975–1993, published by Espejo de Obsidiana, Mexico City, 1993, pages 61–72
  14. ^ Fernando Leal Audirac (1993). "Fernando Leal Audirac: Obra de 1975 a 1993" (in Spanish). Espejo de Obsidiana Ediciones. ISBN 978-9686258325. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  15. ^ Fernando Leal Audirac (2003). "FERNANDO LEAL AUDIRAC: La stagione che rimane" (in Italian). Silvana Editoriale. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  16. ^ Fernando Leal Audirac (2007). "La monumentalidad de lo intimo" (in Italian). ISBN 978-9685011860. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
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