Francisco Bores

Francisco Bores, The Woman in Blue, from Verve, Revue Artistique, 1953

1953

Francisco Bores López (Madrid, May 5, 1898 - Paris, May 10, 1972) was a Spanish painter of the so-called New School of Paris. His artistic training originated both in the Cecilio Pla painting academy, where he met Pancho Cossío, Manuel Ángeles Ortiz or Joaquín Peinado, and in the literary gatherings in Madrid related to ultraism. At this time he made engravings and woodcuts for a large number of magazines such as Horizonte, Cruz y Raya, Index, Revista de Occidente. In 1922 he participated in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. In 1925 he participated in the first exhibition of the Iberian Artists Society. The limited success of this exhibition pushes him to go to Paris. In this city he shared a studio with the Spanish painter Pancho Cossío and also met Picasso and Juan Gris. In 1927 he held his first solo exhibition in Paris. From this moment on, Bores integrates himself into the Parisian artistic environment where he will live practically his entire life. In 1928, his first exhibition in a gallery in the United States, in 1930 he exhibited again, within a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the following years, he continued exhibiting in different galleries in Paris, such as the Georges Petit Gallery, the Bernheim Gallery and the Vavin Raspail Gallery. He also participates in several group exhibitions, highlighting the Exhibition of Contemporary Spanish Art at the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris, he also illustrates books and art magazines such as Minotauro. Contracts with the Zwemmer Galleries in London and Galerie Simon in Paris. Exhibitions in the United States, at the Buchholz Gallery in New York. He spent the Second World War in Saint Jean de Luz where he resumed his friendship with Matisse. In 1947 the French State acquired, for the first time, a work by Bores, in 1949 it was the Museum of Modern Art in New York that acquired his paintings. Its exhibition activity is resumed throughout Europe: France, Germany, Denmark, Italy. His inclusion in the painters of the Louis Carré Gallery, one of the most prestigious in Paris, and therefore in the world, in those years (1954) stands out. He continues, sporadically, to illustrate books (five linocuts "The Cry for the Death of Ignacio Sánchez Mejias" by Federico García Lorca, lithographs to illustrate the complete works of Albert Camus published by the French Imprimerie nationale in 1962). In 1969, he exhibited at the Theo Gallery in Madrid what his approach to the Spanish public represented, which was practically unaware of his work except in professional circles where, on the other hand, it was highly appreciated. In 1971 he exhibited again in this same Theo Gallery, passing away in Paris in 1972. In Bores's work, the critic Joaquín de la Puente points out several periods: Renewed classicism (1923-1925) Neo cubism (1925-1929) Painting-Fruit (1929-1933) Interior scenes (1934-1949) Style in white (1949-1969)