Horacio Pérez Hita, the artwork of framing artwork | Culture | EUROtoday

On March 3, Horacio Pérez Hita (Barcelona, ​​1963) died in his hometown, a singular connoisseur of frames who, because of his lengthy dedication to the research and seek for frames, had turn out to be a reference for museums and collectors.

He started collaborating on the Prado Museum in the course of the time when Gabriele Finaldi, present director of the National Gallery in London, was deputy director of Conservation and Restoration (2002-2015). As an individual skilled within the Anglo-Saxon world, Finaldi taught us to worth the body as a elementary component with regards to correctly presenting a portray and ensured that the museum handled its personal assortment of frames as a set itself. It was at the moment that Horacio Pérez Hita appeared within the museum, with lengthy dedication from his workshop in Ciutat Vella. Horacio had studied Art History and, because the son of an vintage supplier, he launched into his first profession path within the artwork market. One of the duties was to border works, drawings, prints or work. He obtained good at it and obtained hooked on the frames and every thing they required for his or her restoration and correct use. He studied the historical past of the body, however he additionally labored exhausting to seek out items, visiting vintage sellers, sellers, people or gala’s. He additionally restored them, recovering their structural perform, colour and patinas, having fun with the worth of every molding.

Choosing a body required a course of that suited her curious and speculative character. “I saw that the world of the framework is conceptually very complex, and it is curious that a large number of the studies on the framework have been written by philosophers.” And Horace was definitely a acknowledged and admired scholar, however above all a thinker. He argued with ardour, with extraordinary diction and a capability to transmit and train that made every presence within the museum a cheerful occasion. He remembered the way in which during which the French Impressionists regarded for Rococo frames to encompass their creations with “bourgeois respectability,” simply as Picasso regarded for frames in rakes that usually conditioned his personal creations… “Even Rothko wanted to say something with that little strip of wood” with which he framed his compositions.

I like to recommend that readers considering having fun with Horacio Pérez Hita watch the documentary that the Prado devoted to its assortment of frames, and see the way in which during which Horacio paid consideration to all these particulars crucial to border a piece, on the lookout for that molding that helps to correctly take a look at a murals, with out taking away its prominence, successfully accompanying its contemplation.

In addition to his publications and participation in programs, the reminiscence and good work of this framer who gave the career a brand new dimension, is preserved in nationwide and worldwide museums (Prado, National Heritage, Reina Sofía, Picasso of Barcelona, ​​Dalí de figures, Metropolitan of New York, The Frick Collection or The Hispanic Society), artwork galleries and vital personal collections. He framed works by previous masters (Patinir, Velázquez, Zurbarán, El Greco, Luis de Morales, Veroneses, Caravaggio and Goya) and by very numerous modern authors (Sorolla, Fortuny, Warhol, Rouault, Matisse…).

He suffered with humor and knowledge a protracted sickness, a most cancers that has disadvantaged us of a singular and unrepeatable character; from knowledgeable who taught us that framing was actually an artwork.