Espacio Antonio Fortún

The Espacio Antonio Fortun was opened in 2002 to house and display the work that the painter, a reference of Aragonese painting of recent times, left to the village where he was born. In the room dedicated to Antonio Fortun, visitors can see large format works in different styles, exhibition posters and personal objects.

Antonio Fortun Paesa was born on 5 April 1945 in Samper de Salz (Zaragoza). He studied at the School of Art in Zaragoza where he was granted a diploma in Plastic Arts and Decoration. Later he continued his studies at the Art and Philosophy Faculty of Zaragoza University where he got a degree in History of Art. He died in Zaragoza in 1999.

He founded the “Intento y Azuda 40” group of painters in 1972, which had a decisive influence on reactivating artistic creation in Zaragoza. He was co-director of the Kalos Gallery together with Federico Torralba (professor emeritus of History of Art of Zaragoza University) and he managed the Atenas art gallery. Both galleries also played a very important role in the opening of Zaragoza to avant-garde artistic tendencies and circuits.

He travelled throughout Europe, the north of Africa, Asia and the United States. The author of a rich bibliography, several of his works were published, one of the most outstanding being his dissertation, as well as several works about the Aragonese sculptor, Pablo Gargallo and many different specialised articles,

He was mainly devoted to painting, using several techniques such as oil, tempera, acrylic, as well as water paints, combining them with Chinese ink. He also did collages in his own very personal style, silkscreen painting and other types of etching. With respect to sculptures, he did still lives and enamels on ceramic, in accordance with his pictorial styles.

His individual exhibitions were developed in Spain, Italy and Morocco and collectively in Spain, Italy, France, Japan, Morocco and the Czech Republic.

Works of this author are preserved in different museums and collections in Spain and in the rest of the world: In the Biennale Museum in Venice (Italy), Lausanne (Switzerland), Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) and Asilah (Morocco), as well as the Universities of Buffalo and San Francisco in the United States.

Consult the local bar which is located on the ground floor of the building.