{"id":4864,"date":"2021-10-10T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=4864"},"modified":"2021-10-10T12:59:53","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T12:59:53","slug":"basque-fact-of-the-week-agustin-ibarrola-painter-of-forests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/10\/10\/basque-fact-of-the-week-agustin-ibarrola-painter-of-forests\/","title":{"rendered":"Basque Fact of the Week: Agust\u00edn Ibarrola, Painter of Forests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Not far from Gernika, in the forests of the small village of <a href=\"https:\/\/aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus\/eu\/kortezubi\/ar-54971\/\">Kortezubi<\/a>, resides one of the most unusual art displays one can imagine. The trees are painted with splashes of color and geometrical forms that, individually, have no rhyme or reason, but together, when viewed from the right spot, form figures and shapes that come to life. The creation of Agust\u00edn Ibarrola, the Forest of Oma is but one of his many works that combine nature with human intervention, or take materials of our modern age &#8211; things like concrete and railroad ties &#8211; to create something new that forces us to look at the world around us in new ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/elarcoirisdenaiel-ibarrola.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4865\" width=\"256\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/elarcoirisdenaiel-ibarrola.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/elarcoirisdenaiel-ibarrola-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/elarcoirisdenaiel-ibarrola-768x538.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 256px) 100vw, 256px\" \/><figcaption>The Forest of Oma, from <a href=\"https:\/\/agustinibarrola.com\">Agust\u00edn Ibarrola<\/a>&#8216;s website.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/agustinibarrola.com\">Agust\u00edn Ibarrola Goicoechea<\/a> was born in 1930 in the town of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Basauri\">Basauri<\/a>, Bizkaia. He was born into a working class family, which imparted in him a sense of the struggles of the everyman that he took with him into adulthood. He first studied art in Bilbao and then, thanks to a scholarship, Madrid, where he studied under <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Daniel_V\u00e1zquez_D%C3%ADaz\">Daniel V\u00e1zquez D\u00edaz<\/a> and was introduced to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cubism\">cubism<\/a>. In the 1950s, his friendship with <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jorge_Oteiza\">Jorge Oteiza<\/a> led him to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Constructivism_(art)\">constructivism<\/a>. In 1956, he moved to Paris and was part of the collection of Spanish artists called &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/es.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Equipo_57\">Equipo 57<\/a>.&#8221;<\/li><li>Ibarrola was a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Communist\">Communist<\/a> Party and participated in opposition to the Franco regime&#8217;s treatment of workers in the 1960s. He was imprisoned twice for his activities, once in 1962 and again in 1967. <\/li><li>In the 1980s, he began working on one of his most famous &#8220;pieces&#8221; &#8211; the <a href=\"https:\/\/tourism.euskadi.eus\/en\/cultural-heritage\/oma-forest\/aa30-12375\/en\/\">Forest of Oma<\/a>. He secluded himself in his baserri in Kortezubi and, over the course of 5 years, painted the trees in the forest. Individually, they appear as almost random colors and lines, but when seen from the right vantage point, figures, including animals and humans, appear.<\/li><li>His work expanded beyond painting and he used many industrial materials in his art. Using railroad ties, for example, he created &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/esculturayarte.com\/044281\/Viaje-al-Infinito.html#.YRkW7C1h3OQ\">Viaje al Infinito<\/a>,&#8221; which resides in the Abando station in Bilbao; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/es.m.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Archivo:Ola_a_ritmo_de_txalaparta,_de_Agust%C3%ADn_Ibarrola._Estaci\u00f3n_de_Chamart%C3%ADn_(Madrid)..jpg\">Ola a ritmo de txalaparta<\/a>&#8221; (Chamart\u00edn station in Madrid), and &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/esculturayarte.com\/004069\/El-Bosque-de-los-Totems-en-Madrid.html#.YRkWti1h3OQ\">El Bosque de Totems<\/a>&#8221; (Pr\u00edncipe P\u00edo station in Madrid).<\/li><li>One of his most recent works involves painting the large concrete blocks that help form the water break in the town of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Llanes\">Llanes<\/a>, just outside of Bilbao in the province of Asturias. The bright cubes &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.llanes.es\/en\/content\/enjoy-llanes-culture\/los-cubos-de-la-memoria\">Cubos de la Memoria<\/a> &#8211; contrast with the more stark colors of the ocean and the grey walls that form the rest of the breakwater.<\/li><li>Ibarrola has been an active member of both the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Foro_Ermua\">Ermua Forum<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/\u00a1Basta_Ya!\">\u00a1Basta Ya!<\/a>, both of which advocate for the victims of terrorism and against terrorist activities. As a result of his political activities, some of Ibarrola&#8217;s works have been attacked and he himself has been threatened, causing him to leave the Basque Country and settle in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Province_of_\u00c1vila\">\u00c1vila<\/a>. <\/li><li>His work has garnered multiple awards, including the Medalla de Oro del C\u00edrculo de Bellas Artes (1994), la Medalla al M\u00e9rito y Reconocimiento al Trabajo (2001), y la Medalla al Orden y M\u00e9rito Constitucional (2003).<\/li><li>In 1977, he painted <em>Guernica Gernikara<\/em>, part of an attempt to get Picasso&#8217;s <em>Guernica<\/em> to the Basque town of Gernika. The piece, which recreates aspects of Picasso&#8217;s work, was long forgotten in Ibarrola&#8217;s studio but was recently purchased by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.museobilbao.com\/in\/actualidad\/guernica-de-ibarrola-vuelve-al-museo-de-bilbao-491\">Museum of Fine Arts<\/a> in Bilbao.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Primary source: <em>Ibarrola Goicoechea, Agust\u00edn<\/em>. Enciclopedia Au\u00f1amendi. Available at: <a href=\"https:\/\/aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus\/es\/ibarrola-goicoechea-agustin\/ar-72311\/\">https:\/\/aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus\/es\/ibarrola-goicoechea-agustin\/ar-72311\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not far from Gernika, in the forests of the small village of Kortezubi, resides one of the most unusual art displays one can imagine. The trees are painted with splashes of color and geometrical forms that, individually, have no rhyme or reason, but together, when viewed from the right spot, form figures and shapes that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,836],"tags":[2869,2876,2872,2874,2873,2871,2878,2875,2870,30,1556,2992,2879,256,2877],"class_list":["post-4864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-basque-fact-of-the-week","tag-agustin-ibarrola-goicoechea","tag-basta-ya","tag-communist-party","tag-constructivism","tag-cubism","tag-daniel-vazquez-diaz","tag-el-bosque-de-totems","tag-ermua-forum","tag-forest-of-oma","tag-guernica","tag-jorge-oteiza","tag-kortezubi","tag-ola-a-ritmo-de-txalaparta","tag-picasso","tag-viaje-al-infinito"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/elarcoirisdenaiel-ibarrola.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1gs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4864"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4977,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4864\/revisions\/4977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}