Tony Gallardo
| Tony Gallardo | |
|---|---|
| Born | Antonio Gallardo Navarro April 6, 1929 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria |
| 💀Died | July 28, 1996 (aged 67) Las Palmas de Gran CanariaJuly 28, 1996 (aged 67) |
| 🏳️ Nationality | Spanish |
| 💼 Occupation | Sculptor and Politician |
| 🏛️ Political party | Communist Party of Spain |
Tony Gallardo (Antonio Gallardo Navarro) was a Spanish sculptor and politician.
Early years
Gallardo spent a large part of his childhood and youth living next to the sea, which played a large influence on his work. His first individual exhibition of sculpture and drawing was at the Wiot Gallery in 1950. He travelled to Madrid to later return to the Canary Islands in 1952, forming friendships with Felo Monzón, Manolo Millares and Martín Chirino, which led him to experiment with abstract sculpture. He participated in the III Hispano-American Biennial in Barcelona.
In Venezuela
Shortly after his marriage to Mela Campos, he emigrated to Venezuela where he settled in 1956 in Caracas, and where he would meet the painter and poet Juan Ismael. Two years after settling in Venezuela, he was reunited with his wife, who had stayed in the Canary Islands until that time. Tony Gallardo was appointed professor at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (National School of Plastic Arts) in Maracaibo, moving to that city. It was at this time that Gallardo became involved in politics, becoming interested in social struggles and joining the Venezuelan Communist Party. Gallardo would organise groups of muralists to travel to working class neighbourhoods, as well as teams of cultural agitators. He also built contact with groups of Spanish communists who had been exiled by the Francoist regime.
1960s and 1970s
In 1961 Gallardo returned to the Canary Islands and founded, along with other artists and workers, the group Latitud 28. He also participated in the clandestine reorganisation of the Communist Party of Spain (Partido Comunista de España, PCE) in the Canary Islands, one of the main groups which fought the Francoist dictatorship. He organised film workshops and workers' theatre groups, in an effort to create popular art which would reach the neighbourhoods and villages.
He travelled to Paris as a delegate for the Canary Islands for the VII Congress of the Spanish Communist Party, and there he met Santiago Carrillo and Marcelino Camacho. Gallardo would become the leader of the PCE in the Canary Islands.
In 1968 the PCE organised an assembly of workers and farmers in Sardina del Norte. This clandestine assembly was discovered by the Guardia Civil and resulted in a confrontation between the two sides. All those in attendance were arrested, including Tony Gallardo, who was transferred to and between various prisons on the Iberian peninsula. These events are known as the Sucesos de Sardina del Norte (Events of Sardina del Norte). After Gallardo's jailing, the leadership of the PCE in the Canary islands was taken over by José Carlos Mauricio. During his time in prison, Gallardo continued with his artistic activity.
On leaving prison, Gallardo immersed himself in topics related to "art in the streets". He criticised some of the artistic approaches of the "Sala Conca", created in San Cristóbal de La Laguna by Gonzalo Díaz, which he considered to be "eclectic" and "formalist", and lacking a popular base. Later, a "Sala Conca 2" would be founded in Vegueta (a neighbourhood of Las Palmas), and in response Tony Gallardo created "Contacto 1", which was launched with the aim of being an artistic movement as a response. "Contacto 1" would be joined by Juan Hidalgo, Martín Chirino y Manolo Padormo. Gallardo also created, along with various painters, audio-visual projects in educational establishments at high school level.
During a lock-in with workers in the Cathedral of Las Palmas, during a labour dispute with the company Betancor, Gallardo was arrested again. As a response to this arrest, "Contacto 1" organised a collective exposition in solidarity with those who were arrested.
On the peaks of the island of El Hierro, Gallardo created a sculpture named Monumento al campesino (Monument to the Farmer), on whose construction some local farmers collaborated. At its inauguration, Gallardo read a manifesto in defence of Canarian culture which would become known as the Manifiesto de El Hierro (Manifest of El Hierro), in which he made references to Africanism.
Last years
Towards the end of the 1970s, Gallardo created the first part of his sculpture series Magmas, created with volcanic rock. Another of his emblematic works is el Atlante (the Atlas).
During the 1980s, Gallardo established his residence in Madrid, where he received various commissions for sculptures, in Spain as well as in the Canary Islands and Venezuela, and he received recognition for his works. His political ideas became more moderate, and he created works such as Homenaje a la Constitución (Homage to the Constitution), located in Maspalomas.
Tony Gallardo died in Summer 1996.
External Links
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