Assimilating New Models 1949-1953

When I went to Paris I had just finished my Art studies, and my head was a mess. We were forbidden to look at modern art stamps. Here (in Spain) I could not see or touch what was going on, I could not see what Matisse meant and slowly assimilate it. How could I understand Modern Art, Cubism, Pointillism, and the American Informal Art. It was very difficult with the bad formation from the School of Art.

Gazeta del Arte, 7/12/1975.

And so the story begins. The works of Kandinsky, Braque’s, Juan Gris’s…The ‘discoveries’ and the elaboration of the kid who is standing. More than anything else it was a matter of watching and meeting people.
Sempere.

Edurne Gallery. 25/11/1974

Impressed and flooded by the variety and richness of tendencies, Sempere leaves himself open to all that had been forbidden at the School; and he learns from the masters that led the creative currents at the moment. It is his own revolution, , the moment of receiving new ideas, his needed opening and expansion before starting a more deep and own search. Sempere paints cubist still lives, murals on walls, discovers the world of geometry; he tries new materials…

I copied Braque, Matisse and Klee. After that I got into Mondrian and Kandisnky.

Arriba. 22nd April, 1965..

Sempere contacts Braque directly:

When I arrived, the cenacles hardly existed. They were spread, each looking for his own place. There were only a few masters left, including Braque. We visited them troubled of disturbing them. And then we realised that they were a lot more humble than we thought…We were all starting a completely new art, searching…

Biography notes. Eusebio Sempere. An Antology 1953-1981. IVAM.

You know I destroyed the whole work, probably because there was too much Kandinsky, Matisse, Braque and I didn’t agree with all that mess. I’d like to have kept them, possibly to destroy them again, but I’d have known what it was that worried me then…, after this I was scared to take my stuff to the galleries.

Conversation with Sempere. Guadalimar, 8. 10/12/1975

Doc: Encuentros. Georges Braque