Paseantes en la Calle, 1983-84
Oil on prepared canvas
Signed and dated lower left: Tabara '83; signed and dated again: E. Tabara '84, and titled, verso


43" H x 43" W

Provenance: The Carolyn J. Adrian Collection, South Pasadena, CA

Notes: The thick, distinct forms depicted across the surface of this painting suggest that Tabara may have used an encaustic technique to create it.

Tabara studied at the Escuela Artes in Guayaquil from 1946-1951 where he studied with Luis Martinez Serrano. In 1955 he received a grant to go to Spain, where he lived until 1964. He first used Expressionism as a reaction against Indigenism. He started the Ecuadorian artist group VAN against the influence of Indigenism. Tabara's work was central to the Latin American movement, which began to abandon social realism in the 1950's. In his early work he painted characters on the margins of society in a hard and grotesque manner. Tabara first exhibited in the United States at the OAS in 1954. From 1953 he started to experiment with abstraction, and in the 1960's he constructed a language of magical and mythical connotations derived from Pre-Columbian calligraphy and Surrealism. His work from this period is rich in texture, combining elements glued to the canvas, serial calligraphy, and telluric forms. In 1969 he began to search for new signs, notably feet and legs (his pata-pata motif) and from 1985 he revitalized his use of color and added leafy vegetation to the feet and legs in his quest to create morphologies compatible with the mythical culture of American man. Tabara has exhibited worldwide. - Carolyn Adrian

Visual: Good condition. Dust accumulation commensurate with age. Occasional craquelure.

Blacklight: A very small, 0.125" H x 0.24" W, possible old touch-up in the gray background at center. Two additional touch-ups, each approximately nickel-sized, near the center of the extreme left edge. Difficult to read under slightly uneven varnish.

Frame: 44" H x 44" W x 2" D