Fernando Villapol
Encyclopedia
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
Spain) is a museum curator and art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
, most famous as a contemporary Galician
Galician people
The Galicians are an ethnic group, a nationality whose historical homeland is Galicia in north-western Spain. Most Galicians are bilingual, speaking both their historic language, Galician, and Castilian Spanish.-Political and administrative divisions:...
sculptor. He currently lives and works in the town of Bretoña (Lugo
Lugo
Lugo is a city in northwestern Spain, in the autonomous community of Galicia. It is the capital of the province of Lugo. The municipality had a population of 97,635 in 2010, which makes is the fourth most populated city in Galicia.-Population:...
) located in Galicia. He is also the founder of the Ethnographic-Pedagogic Museum in Bretoña. He studied at the College of Applied Arts in Lugo, Spain, although can be considered an autodidact
Autodidacticism
Autodidacticism is self-education or self-directed learning. In a sense, autodidacticism is "learning on your own" or "by yourself", and an autodidact is a person who teaches him or herself something. The term has its roots in the Ancient Greek words αὐτός and διδακτικός...
, attributing most of his knowledge and acquired skills through his self-funded travels and investigations of sculpture across the globe (e.g. Africa, Cuba, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden).
Materials of choice
Villapol's sculptures embody a wide variety of materials, including but not limited to:- metal (ironIronIron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
, bronzeBronzeBronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
) - wood (Galician common yew, oakOakAn oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
, Spanish box treeBox TreeBox Tree is a restaurant located in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, England. , the restaurant holds one star in the Michelin Guide.- External links :*...
, chestnutChestnutChestnut , some species called chinkapin or chinquapin, is a genus of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.-Species:The chestnut belongs to the...
tree]) - stone (marbleMarbleMarble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
, graniteGraniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
).
Artistic style
Critics of Villapol's work often define his sculptures as one or combination of: realismRealism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
, abstractism
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
, and surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
. The artist has been said to be inspired by works from Diego Velázquez
Diego Velázquez
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
, Urbano Lugrís, Eugenio Granell
Eugenio Granell
Eugenio Granell was an artist often described as the last Spanish Surrealist painter.Born in A Coruña in the autonomous community of Galicia, Eugenio Fernández Granell started out as a political radical and a musician...
, and Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
. More recently, critics have suggested that Villapol's style cannot be defined by any one of these labels but as a fusion of all three: REalism + ABstractism + SUrrealism. This is has been recently stated by the artist himself:
Awards and distinctions
- Arte de Meigas e Trasnos Prize (SarriaSarriaSarria is a municipality in the province of Lugo, northwestern Spain, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Sarria is the most densely populate town on the French Way in Galicia, with 13 700 inhabitants...
, Spain, 1990) - Lugo Plastic Arts Award (LugoLugoLugo is a city in northwestern Spain, in the autonomous community of Galicia. It is the capital of the province of Lugo. The municipality had a population of 97,635 in 2010, which makes is the fourth most populated city in Galicia.-Population:...
, Spain, 1994 ) - Cangas do Morrazo Prize (CangasCangasCangas do Morrazo is a municipality in Galicia, Spain in the province of Pontevedra.-External links:**...
, Spain, 2004–2006 ) - 10th Burela Art Competition, awarded 1st prize in sculpture (BurelaBurelaBurela, is a municipality in the Spanish province of Lugo. The first written reference to Burela is in a document dated back to 1096, and it is referred as Burellum. The origin of the name Burela is still unknown. Burela has an ancient history with some archeological evidence like the "Torques", a...
, Spain, 2005) - Luarca Arts award (LuarcaLuarcaLuarca is one of 15 parroquias and the capital in the municipality of Valdes, in Asturias, Spain. Situated at an elevation of above sea level, it has a population of 5,354 , and an area of . The village is from the capital, Oviedo. The Nobel laureate for medicine in 1959, Severo Ochoa, was...
, Spain, 2006 )
Ethnographic-Pedagogic Museum
The museum was founded and is curated by Villapol in 2002 houses a wide display of rural Galician culture and contemporary Galician art. The pieces from local folk history show the evolution of the various important trades in the district: clogClog (shoe)
A clog is a type of footwear made in part or completely from wood.The Oxford English Dictionary defines a clog as a "thick piece of wood", and later as a "wooden soled overshoe" and a "shoe with a thick wooden sole"....
maker, baker
Baker
A baker is someone who bakes and sells bread, Cakes and similar foods may also be produced, as the traditional boundaries between what is produced by a baker as opposed to a pastry chef have blurred in recent decades...
, carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
, shoemaker, basket weaver
Basket weaving
Basket weaving is the process of weaving unspun vegetable fibres into a basket or other similar form. People and artists who weave baskets are called basketmakers and basket weavers.Basketry is made from a variety of fibrous or pliable materials•anything that will bend and form a shape...
, and farming. There are also education displays which show a typical Galician school, doctor's office, dentist's office, chemist as they were seen in the 19th century. Additionally, the museum contains original manuscripts by Otero Pedrayo
Otero Pedrayo
Ramón Otero Pedrayo was a Galician geographer, writer and intellectual. He was a key member of the Galician cultural and political movement Xeración Nós.-Biography:...
, Vicente Risco
Vicente Risco
Vicente Martínez Risco Agüero was a Galician intellectual of the 20th Century. He was a founder member of Xeración Nós, and among the most important figures in the history of Galician literature. He is well regarded for his writings on Galician nationalism, as well as a contributor to the Galician...
, Bouza Brey, Antonio Fraguas, Iglesia Alvariño, Camilo García Trelles, González Garcés, and Castroviejo
Castroviejo
Castroviejo is a village in the province and autonomous community of La Rioja, Spain....
, as well as a wide collection of paintings from contemporary Galician artistts: Urbano Lugrís, Laxeiro, Castrogil, Vilar Chao, Mariano Garcia Patiño and Mayor Balboa. Also, the museum also boasts a collection of over 2000 authentic Galician and Asturian soda syphon
Soda syphon
The soda syphon , also known as the seltzer bottle or syphon seltzer bottle is a device for dispensing carbonated or soda water....
bottles.
Public collections
- Provincial Museum of Lugo (Lugo, Spain)
- Ethnographic-Pedagogic Museum (Bretoña, Lugo, Spain)
- Museum of Fonsagrada (Lugo, Spain)
Selected solo exhibitions
- González Garcés Library ( A Coruña, Spain )
- Provincial Museum of Lugo (Lugo, Spain)
- Museum of Fonsagrada (Fonsagrada, Lugo, Spain)
- Ateneo of Ourense (Ourense, Spain)
- Provincial Library of Lugo (Lugo, Spain)
- Esmelgar Gallery
- Almirante Gallery
- Bacabú Gallery (Lugo, Spain)
- Sargadelos Gallery (Vigo, Spain)
- Eiros Gallery (Meira, Spain)
- Solloso Gallery (Ribadeo, Spain)
- Taramundi Cultural Center (Taramundi, Asturias, Spain)
- A Guardia Cultural Center (Pontevedra, Spain)
- San Tirso Cultural Center (San Tirso de Abres, Asturias, Spain)
- Puerta II Gallery (Lugo, Spain)
- Cangas do Morrazo Cultural Center (Pontevedra, Spain)
- Grisolart Gallery ( Barcelona, Spain)
- Magdalena Church in Rivadavia (Ourense, Spain)
- University of Sek (Segovia, Spain)
- Salnés Exhibition (Cambados, Pontevedra, Spain)
- El Vendrell (Tarragona, Spain)
- Vegadeo Cultural Center (Vegadeo, Asturias, Spain)
- Burela Cultural Center (Burela, Lugo, Spain)
- Alvaro Delgado de Luarca Gallery (Luarca, Asturias, Spain)
- Cajastur Bank Exhibit (throughout Asturias, Spain)
- Antique Museum (París, France)
- Pazo Melgaso (Portugal)
- Ribadeo Exhibition (Lugo)