Andrés Nagel

San Sebastián, 1947

Architect, draftsman, painter, engraver, photographer and sculptor for whom “ … works of art are not but a note, but something which can unleash feelings, and around which everything is redundant …”

Proud of his San Sebastian heritage, he has always been closely linked to his city, where he lives and works, and where in 1968 he presented his first individual exhibition. A new, self-taught artist emerged on the scene, with no formal artistic training, with a mixture of painting and sculpture that was a far cry from the strong sculptural tradition of the legendary Chillida and Oteiza.

His career, always figurative, has been homogeneous and coherent, developing a very personal style in which the concepts of assembly, collage, mixture, union and combination are ever-present.

An artist who is difficult to classify, for Nágel knowledge and acceptance of art and the past do not mean remaining trapped therein nor belonging to a specific artistic current. Among the multiple references which can be found in his creations are the pneumatic shapes and surreal dreamlike compositions, pop art materials or intensity of colour, and the aggressive treatment of the material of neo-expressionism.

He declares himself more a student of the street than of any particular school, and says he owes a debt of gratitude to the period in which he began to grow as an artist with the literature of Charles Bukowski and the rock music of Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols. In his view “… painting comes out of the painter’s way of life, not of laboratory creations. One of the advantages of this trade is precisely that freedom of action …”

His expressiveness encompasses different artistic languages and a very personal way of working with graphic and painting procedures as three-dimensional elements. He is as likely to use traditional materials as industrial or recycled ones (iron, lead, polyester, fibre glass…), skilfully integrating and associating elements and objects of different origins within his compositions. This creativity based on grouping together artistic genres and using all kinds of materials is, in his case, linked to another more classical creativity which consists of the importance of mastering technique in almost a craftsmanlike manner, in the way of Calder and Giacometti.

Evidence of his achievement are the more than thirty years of individual and collective exhibitions worldwide including public sculptures in Barcelona, San Sebastián and Amorebieta (Vizcaya).

2004 Andrés Nagel Diana Mixed technique on polyester and fibre glass 102,2 x 82,5 x 6 cm