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ENRIQUE TABARA (b. 1930, Guayaquil, Ecuador) is
one of the most important artists of the last
century.  He is an Ecuadorian painter of universal
importance and Tabara shares that pedestal with
teachers of the stature of Picasso, Joan Miro,
Eduardo Kingman, Oswaldo Guayasamin, Felix Arauz,
Rufino Tamayo and Juan Villafuerte, audacious
creators and forjadores of a whole Latin American
pictorial and artistic culture. Tabara took
interest in painting at the age of three, was
drawing regularly by the age of six and was
strongly encouraged by both his sister and his
mother.  Enrique Tabara nevertheless is a creator
who far from taking refuge in the comfortable
finding of an image, that is to him his own, he
investigates and demystifies his own image and
finds refuge in her  and a thousand and one images
that engage in a dialog which is permanently
renewed. That energetic and innovating spirit in
Enrique Tabara is a constant that reveals the
anxious and versatile spirit of the teacher. A
master of experimentation, fully aware of his
roots and the process that he has followed over
the years, with an abundant mass of brilliant
works to show for it. 

In 1906, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso led
Cubism, the avant-garde art movement that greatly
influenced both European painting and sculpture
and paved the way for Futurism and Constructivism.
 Around 1915, Constructivism was very big in
Russia, led by Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin. 
Eventually, the Constructivist style made its way
into Europe and Latin America and was embraced by
Ecuadorian artist Manuel Rendon Seminario, who was
a big inspiration for both Enrique Tabara and
Anibal Villacis.

In 1946, Tabara attended the School of Fine Arts
and was mentored by Germany|German artist Hans
Michaelson and Guayaquileno artist, Luis Martinez
Serrano.  In 1951, Tabara finished mastering the
fundamentals and left art school. In 1955 the
Ecuadorian government offered Tabara a
scholoarship to study in Spain.  Tabara's work was
welcomed with great success in Spain and Tabara
befriended surrealist Andre Breton and Modernist
painter Joan Miro.  By 1959, Tabara's work had
gained a great deal of international attention and
it came fast.  Andre Breton asked Tabara to
represent Spain in the Homage to Surrealism
exhibition, among the works of Salvador Dali,
Eugenio Granell and Joan Miro.  Miro praised
Tabara's work and both artists had great respect
for one another.  In 1963, Tabara represented
Ecuador together with Humberto More' and Theo
Constante at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris for
the Third Biennial of Paris. By 1964, Tabara's
work was being shown in Laussane, Milan, Grenchen,
Vienna, Lisbon, Munich, Barcelona, Madrid,
Guayaquil, Quito, Washington, and Paris.  On his
return to Ecuador, Tabara returned to his roots
through the Latin American current of
"ancestralism", which finds inspiration in
pre-Hispanic cultures that inhabited the continent
(third stage).  Tabara is the first artist to use
the Pre-Colombian motif as a search for a new
aesthetic.

Finally, Tabara started to paint simple shapes
inspired in nature, and also other simple
structures, such as his famed "patas-patas", or
feet-feet, and insects. Tabara is most known for
his Patas-Patas works which contain legs with feet
incorporated into the piece. When asked about this
subject matter Tabara says that one day he was
drawing a figure and he didn't like it, so he
ripped it up and the feet of the figure landed at
his feet and thus his fate. Tabara is an artist
who is in a constant, infinite search. He likes to
experiment and live "pictorical adventures". He
believes that in art one has to pose difficult
problems for oneself and solve them on the canvas.
Today, Tabara is considered one of the most
important artist of the last century.  

Tabara continues to paint with a vigorous spirit
in his home town of Guayaquil, Ecuador.  Barcelona
is considered Tabara's home away from home.


Tabara's Official Website:
http://www.enriquetabara.com Tabara



==Reference==
*Arean, Carlos A. Tabara. Pelaez Editores, Centro
de Arte Gala Banco de Guayaquil; Quito, Ecuador,
1990.