JOSÉ SUÁREZ. Thinking Eyes, Living Gaze
The Royal Galician Academy of Fine Arts is dedicating the 2026 Galician Arts Day to José Suárez (Allariz, 1902), Galicia’s most international photographer. With a career defined by his involvement in the avant-garde art scene, Suárez possessed a solid intellectual grounding and held liberal and Republican views. He was among those forced into exile following the 1936 coup d’état against the Republic and democracy. He was also a filmmaker and published three books: 50 fotos de Salamanca, with a prologue by Miguel de Unamuno (1932), Nieve en la cordillera (1942) and The Life & Death of the Fighting Bull (1967), with a text by John Marks.
He associated with leading figures in the cultural sphere, such as Miguel de Unamuno, Eduardo Blanco Amor, Luis Seoane, Rafael Alberti or Akira Kurosawa, among others.
His photographic work, influenced by New Objectivity, is characterised by a modern, reflective approach centred on the human figure, distancing itself from folklorism and aligning itself with the most innovative European trends. His complex and sensitive artistic vision has positioned him as one of the most significant figures of Galician photography and an artist of international standing. His work falls within the field of photojournalism, but always with a profoundly humanistic perspective. As he himself stated: ‘Man is always present in my photos, or at the very least, his trace.’
At this event dedicated to José Suárez’s work held at the CGAC, organised in collaboration with the Royal Galician Academy of Fine Arts, Juan Manuel Bonet will explore the artist’s work and the influences of the avant-garde movements, focusing on three distinct periods: the context of the Second Republic, his exile, and his return to Spain in 1959. For his part, Antón Patiño will examine from a painter’s perspective the photographic work of ‘Pepe’ Suárez. The event will conclude with a round-table discussion moderated by Xurxo Lobato, featuring the lecturers Miguel Anxo Rodríguez and José Luis Castro de Paz.
PROGRAMME
5.00 p.m. Opening ceremony hosted by Manuel Quintana Martelo, President of the Royal Galician Academy of Fine Arts
5.15 p.m. José Suárez. Galician, Salamanca-Born and Tricontinental Photographer, lecture by Juan Manuel Bonet
6.15 p.m. The Thinking Gaze, lecture by Antón Patiño
7.15 p.m. Round-table discussion featuring Miguel Anxo Rodríguez (The Machine, Work, Territory) and José Luis Castro de Paz (Hopes and Frustrations. The Cinema of José Suárez). Moderator: Xurxo Lobato
JUAN MANUEL BONET (Paris, 1953) is a Spanish writer, art critic and exhibition curator. Throughout his career, he has held positions of great institutional importance, such as the directorship of the IVAM, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and the Instituto Cervantes. He currently chairs the Fundación Archivo Rafael Cansinos Assens, the International Committee of the Fundación Vicente Huidobro, and is also a member of the board of trustees of the Museo ABC. His critical and curatorial work has focused on various cultural movements and contexts, including Surrealism, Polish Constructivism, the Argentine avant-garde, the Republican exile movement, and the artistic generation of the nineteen-eighties.
ANTÓN PATIÑO (Monforte de Lemos, 1957) is an artist and a founding member of the artistic group Atlántica. Since the nineteen-eighties, he has maintained an extensive exhibition presence in galleries and museums in Spain and abroad. His works are included in the collections of several museums and foundations, including the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the CGAC, the MEIAC, the MACBA, the Fundación “la Caixa” and Artium. He is also active in theoretical work through his writings and lectures, and has produced numerous texts on the experience of art.
MIGUEL ANXO RODRÍGUEZ (Vigo, 1970) is a lecturer in Art History at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC), where he specialises in contemporary art and art theory. Throughout his research career, he has studied contemporary sculpture, the relationship between art and ideology, and cultural policy. He currently coordinates the research project PERMORIA. Performatividad del monumento, as part of the Spanish Research Plan.
JOSÉ LUIS CASTRO DE PAZ (A Coruña, 1964) is a professor of Audiovisual Communication at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, where he specialises in the history and theory of Spanish and Galician cinema. Throughout his research career, he has studied classic Spanish cinema, the relationship between cinema and television, as well as film historiography and Galician audiovisual media. He currently runs the Centre for Film Studies (CEFILMUS) at the USC, through which he promotes research projects on the history of cinema and contemporary audiovisual culture.