“Some aspects of Oteiza’s work and thought have given rise to misunderstandings and misrepresentations”

Gabriel Insausti , a writer and professor at the University of Navarra, has presented his book *Oteiza in Basque Culture (1959–1979): Fertility and Misunderstanding* in San Sebastián. “Jorge Oteiza played a central role in the development Basque culture during such a decisive period,” Some aspects of his work and thought, however, have resisted final clarification final have given rise to misunderstandings and misrepresentations,” states the author.

The book, published by Comares and presented at the bookshop , examines the role played by the artist after he gave up sculpture and became one of the most influential voices in Basque discussion over the course of these two decades. In writing the book, the author had access to the sculptor’s archives, provided by the Jorge Oteiza Museum Foundation.

Through an analysis of his writings, public statements, and how he was received by different generations of intellectuals and artists, Insausti reflects on how his ideas were interpreted, discussed, and reworked in fields as diverse as literature, politics, religious thought, and the cultural movements of the time.

What was his interpretation of Baroja and Unamuno? What relationship did the artist have with the ETA in the 1960s? How should we understand his religiosity? What interpretation of Marxism can be discerned in his writings? How did he address the centrality of the Basque language in the new nationalism? With this work, the professor at the University of Navarra seeks to answer these questions and, as he states, “to address the perplexity with which we younger people at the time viewed that loquacious and out-of-place figure who appeared in the local press.”

How far did his influence extend?

The purpose of this work is to determine who Oteiza was and what his role was during the period that began with his withdrawal the visual arts and his settlement in Irún during the late Franco era, and that ended with the approval of the Statute of Gernika—or the “Amejoramiento” of regional law the dawn of a new political and institutional era in the Basque Country. “The word that sums up that role embodies all the vagueness of an entelechy: ‘influence,’” notes the Full Professor Literature.

“Perhaps more than truthfulness, what speech sought was effectiveness. The question is to what extent it achieved that and in what direction it led its audience,” he explains. According to the author, analyzing the artist’s role during that decisive era involves examining certain narratives that may be less obvious but are equally relevant to understanding the roots of contemporary Basque culture. “That study,” he adds, “not only answers the perplexity of my generation but can also set the next generation—those born around the turn of the century—on the path to understanding certain realities.”

Gabriel Insausti, Full Professor Contemporary Literature at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Navarra, is the author of *The Complete Poetry of Oteiza* for the Oteiza Foundation (2006) and coordinator the anthologies *The group : Fifty Years* (2017) and *Oteiza and the Sacred* (2023). He is also the author of several monographs: “In the Footsteps of Huston,” “The Nostalgic Trench: British Writers in the Spanish Civil War,” “Miguel Hernández: The Invention of a Legend,” “The Bridge and the Shores: Four English Poets,” “Distance and Time: Writings on Cernuda,” “No Man’s Land: The English Poet and the Great War,” “Beauty and Truth: The Passion of Hopkins,” “The Lyre of Linos: Christianity and European Culture,” “Steps in the Atrium: Kafka, Roth, Buber, and Brodsky, and Christmas: Toward Another Russia.”