The piece of the month of August 2010

"EXVOTO", BY ALFREDO SADA
 

Silvia Sádaba Cipriain
Chair de Patrimonio y Arte Navarro
 

Alfredo Felipe Sada Laguardia was born in the Navarrese town of Falces on 22 December 1949. He was the youngest of three brothers, in a family dedicated to the work of the land. From an early age he showed an inclination towards the world of art and particularly towards modelling, a fact that was at first somewhat misunderstood by his relatives. He lived in his native village until he was fifteen when he decided to leave the rural world and move to Pamplona to begin his artistic career training . In the capital of Navarre he began to work in different trades in order to make a living, although he always tried to choose those that were related to the world of sculpture or the work of the Materials and which therefore allowed him to train. In his own words, we can say that for him "sculpture is more than a livelihood, it is a way of life". His move to Pamplona marked the beginning of a long period of self-taught training . 

It was in the 1970s that his training became more academic and regular. It was marked by self-taughtness, the desire to continue learning, and experimentation with techniques and Materials. In 1972, a significant year for art in Navarre, he began his programs of study at the Pamplona School of Arts and Crafts. He remained there until 1977, and cultivated close and lasting friendships with the painter Pedro Salaberri, with whom he collaborated on numerous occasions, and with the painter Juan José Aquerreta. His time at school was somewhat irregular due to the fact that he was obliged to combine his programs of study with various jobs, but this did not prevent him from obtaining excellent marks. Later, he pointed out that it helped him to learn classical drawing, modelling, and to meet interesting people. However, J.C. Resano believes that the real school of our sculptor was his time in various trades. The period that opened up after he left the School of Arts and Crafts marked the beginning of his artistic maturity and greater recognition as a sculptor. It was a period of intense activity, and also a continuation of his self-taught training , both of which he combined with subsistence work. It was during this period that his exhibition activity took off, both in Navarre and abroad. 

In 1986 he told Diario de Navarra: "I want to make more work staff. My sculptures are becoming more and more conceptualist and the finishes more expressionist and free. Perhaps the next step I will take will be towards more sensual and less geometric forms". In 1988 his work underwent a transformation as he tried to do new things, leaving aside the "conventional" Materials , which led to the introduction of the use of lead. This was the most brilliant stage in Sada's career, and his highest creative moment. The incorporation of lead into his sculpture triggered the consolidation of a defined style staff , as well as a greater presence in artistic circuits such as that of Madrid. It was a period in which he entered contact with leading artists of the time, and with the cultural life of Madrid: he attended the workshops of Arte Actual directed by the sculptor Miquel Navarro and, above all, he discovered the treasures of the National Archaeological Museum on his frequent visits. During these years, Sada took the firmest steps towards the consolidation of his name in the Spanish artistic sphere, such as the acquisition of his work by institutions, the holding of solo exhibitions in Madrid and his participation in ARCO 91. Unfortunately, this promising artistic career was cut short early on with the death of the sculptor in 1992, who since the end of the eighties has been considered one of the best Navarrese sculptors of the time.

Alfredo Sada's work is characterised by the use of a language of diaphanous, simple and pure figures. By an organicist schematization of forms that tends towards abstraction. The surfaces are soft, delicate, smooth and worked, insinuating an inconsistency that the material (generally rigid) does not possess. This simplicity and sensuality of the surfaces is a constant in his work, as is the concealment of the artist's "fingerprint", despite the fact that he did almost all of work by hand, including the final polishing. article These words of the sculptor, quoted in a press article that Ulzurrun wrote for Diario de Navarra in 1983, are revealing: "I seek the maximum simplification of the work, trying not to leave a cold, geometric object but something with an organic character despite the hardness of the material".

The artists who most interested him were Jorge Oteiza and Henry Moore, and later he came closer to Brancusi and the constructivists. He investigated the play of volumes and the spaces occupied by Materials, using a great variety of them: clay, plaster, stone, alabaster... to which he added copper in his last stage, showing a preference for the hard Materials .

As for the themes of this production, we can say that most of them are based on archaeology and the Etruscan, Egyptian and Iberian cultures, as he was a self-confessed fan of archaeology and Greek mythology. This is the case of the piece we are dealing with: Ex-voto, belonging to this last and most brilliant period of the Falcesino. In this torso, one of the essential characteristics of Sada's work is fulfilled, which is the elegance of the forms, but other constants are also present, such as the presence of the curved line, a clear axis of symmetry, and a serene balance.

In Alfredo Sada's production there are two "votive offerings" that were made at the same time, and have as their predecessor the decapitated busts, since these votive offerings also lack a head, as Juan Cruz Resano points out in his work of thesis . Both medium-sized pieces, as was usual in Sada, form part of the group of works that take the human body as a reference point. In fact, it is a torso with highly stylised and schematised forms. Of particular note is the power of the shoulders, which have no continuity. These, as well as the truncated waist and neck, end in sections of spheres, smoothly joined to the main mass of the piece. In the case of the waist, this spherical shape acts as a base, standing out for its smaller size in relation to the size of the piece, and creating the sensation of a somewhat precarious visual balance. 

It seems clear that this piece is linked to models of ancient Mediterranean statuary, and even more so if we take into account our sculptor's passion for it, but also with Iberian sculpture, due to the intuited power of the Anatomy.

Ex-voto was acquired by the Museum of Navarre in 1994, and subsequently exhibited together with others at sample 75 años de pintura y escultura en Navarra 1921-1996, at conference room Catillo de Maya in Pamplona, in 1996.

"Exvoto", by Alfredo Sada (1990)
Technique: lead on plaster. Measurements: 70 x 70 x 15cm.
Museum of Navarre Collection

bibliography AND HEMEROGRAPHY :
-RESANO, Juan Cruz, Alfredo Sada (1949-1992): un project escultórico por recuperar, Universidad del País Vasco [2005].
-. "Alfredo Sada (1949-1992): un project escultórico por recuperar". In: Arte e identidades culturales: conference proceedings del XII congress Nacional del committee Español de Historia del Arte, CEHA, 28, 29, 30 September and 1 October, Oviedo 1998, 1998, ISBN 84-8317-083-3, pp. 655-668.
-AlfredoSada, Caja Municipal, Pamplona, 1986. Catalogue of the exhibition conference room García Castañón.
-Espacios de arte, Pamplona City Council, Pamplona: 1990. Catalogue of the exhibition conference room de Exposiciones de Zapatería 40.
-AlfredoSada, Emilio Navarro Gallery, Madrid: 1990. Catalogue exhibition.
-Gorgonas.Alfredo Sada, Estudio Gallery, Tudela: 1991. Catalogue of the exhibition.
-Alfredo S ada, Caja Municipal, Pamplona, 1994. Catalogue of the exhibition retrospective.
-BAZTÁN, M., ""Sculpture is more than a means of life, it is a way of life". (Alfredo Sada)", Diario de Navarra, Pamplona, 9/12/1986, p. 23.
-J. E., "On the death of Alfredo Sada", Diario de Navarra, Pamplona, 26/10/1992, p. 36.
-MURO, L. A., "The sculptor Alfredo Sada, exhibits his "Gorgonas" in the "Galería Estudio"", Diario de Navarra, Pamplona, 20 October 1991, p. 65.
-ULZURRUN, G., ""I was not interested in being a child prodigy". (Alfredo Sada)", Diario de Navarra, Pamplona, 19/01/1983, p. 16.