ANTONIO LUCAS
MADRID.- In 1955 Luis Feito worked in Paris, in a full aesthetic transition, - almost in crisis – trying to take refuge in the art in the French galleries that were omnipotent at that time, on the margin of political groups, although the magnetic needle of his compass was pointing to the left.
He was getting rid of initial realism with neocubism echos, when his first exhibition in Paris was on the way of forming. It was staged in the gallery Arnaud, and when it was closed on the planned day some part of his works had to be sent back to Madrid, approximately twenty canvases and drawings on the paper.
But they were never delivered, as they were drowned in the ocean of the French bureaucracy. The works were held in the Spanish custom-house, confiscated because they were under suspicion of having secret codes and communist documents from Paris, a trick peculiar to the awkward inspector Gadget.
How could they decipher communist documents and key message in the works of abstract painter? Nobody could find anything but the undecoded paintings. The canvases remained stored at the custom-house and a year later they were found in Iran with the package of lost belongings among hand-made crucifix, pasteboard suitcases,
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stuffed partridge, set of false teeth, a pair of woolen cloaks, a trap for frogs. And that was bought by an individual for 2000 pesetas!
Those canvases remained in the dark and only now, 50 years later, Luis Feito has recognized and signed them. “The canvases are signed only when they are sold and in those years we did not sell a single besom, just imagine!”, was joking the artist. The gallery Jose de la Mano in Madrid (6, Claudio Coello Str.) exhibits them till the 31st of next May under the title of Recuperated Memory.
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One of the unedited works, recuperated after 50 years. |
And so, half of a century later, Feito found his works. “At that time my first works were not abstract, and few people knew them. The whole story was nonsensical. What worried the custom-house officers was my connection with the gallery Fernando Fe which was directed by an old communist deputy of the Republic Fulgencio Romero who returned that year to Spain after his exile.”
The works were lost, unfortunately, and the energy of Feito prompted him to keep on painting and proceed with his work in the significant group “El Paso” (1955-1965)
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of which he was a founding member alongside with Antonio Saura, Manuel Millares and Martín Chirino among others. Coached sleuths of franquism found neither communist tracks nor signs in his works, which were given over to someone who accidentally turned out to be the best collector of the first Feito’s period of artistic work.
“The man who bought the package with my paintings and drawings worked in the Museum of Prado. Until his death, he knew neither about me nor about that crazy adventure. It was his children who got in touch with me and after several meetings and the recognition of my collection of various drawings and canvases, I signed the originals that are exhibited now in the gallery José de la Mano”, reminisced Feito.
In that mess in the custom-house a series of drawings on the paper was lost as well; it was made by the artist together with one of his comrades from the group Rafael Canogar in bygone days when they were searching for glory and fame in every nook and cranny of Paris.
Feito has already forgotten this adventure and regarded the pieces as lost forever, probably destroyed in a room warmed by a gas-generator in the basement of the custom-house. But they have come to light in order to underline every stage of the artist’s career, to demonstrate this zero kilometer of his work, when the matter concerned abstractionism.
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