BORES Francisco
A Madrid-born painter who settled in Paris in 1925, Francisco Bores (1898-1972) is part of the generation of Spanish artists who enriched the École de Paris alongside Picasso and Juan Gris. His luminous painting, between Cubist heritage and color lyricism, is reflected in his lithographs printed at Mourlot. Discover above the prints by Francisco Bores selected by Galerie 125.
Francisco Bores, a Spaniard at the Heart of the École de Paris
Born in Madrid on May 6, 1898, and died in Paris on May 10, 1972, Francisco Bores, often spelled Borès, is one of the most endearing figures of the second wave of Spanish artists who arrived in Paris in the 1920s. Long better known in France than in Spain, he built a highly coherent body of work, where the lessons of Cubism gradually blend into a painting of color, light, and intimacy.
From Madrid to Montparnasse
Trained at the Cecilio Plá Academy in Madrid, where he met Pancho Cossío and Joaquín Peinado, Bores also frequented avant-garde literary circles close to Ultraism and illustrated several Madrid magazines. In 1925, he exhibited at the first exhibition of the Society of Iberian Artists, which presented non-academic painters to the Madrid public for the first time. That same year, he moved to Paris, shared a studio with Cossío, and formed ties with Picasso, Juan Gris, and later Matisse.
His first solo exhibition in Paris took place in 1927. By 1930, his works were included in a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and galleries in Paris, London, and New York regularly showcased his art.
A Painting that Evolves Without Renouncing Its Origins
Historian Joaquín de la Puente identified several periods in his work: a renewed classicism, a neo-Cubist phase in the late 1920s, followed by the "fruit painting" of the early 1930s, more sensual and colorful. Then came the interior scenes, before the "white style" of maturity, where forms lighten to the brink of abstraction. During the war, while a refugee in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, he reconnected with Matisse, whose freedom of color resonates in his compositions.
After 1945, recognition followed. The French state acquired a first work in 1947, he exhibited at the Galerie de France in 1949, and joined the Galerie Louis Carré in 1954, one of the major Parisian houses of the post-war period. The Spanish public truly discovered him only in 1969, at the Theo Gallery in Madrid.
Bores and Printmaking
Bores practiced engraving from his Madrid years, then book illustration. Notably, he created linocuts for García Lorca's Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías and lithographs for the complete works of Albert Camus published by the Imprimerie nationale in 1962. His lithographs retain the finesse of his palette and the suppleness of his drawing.
His works are held in the National Museum of Modern Art (Centre Pompidou), the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Grenoble Museum, the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, MoMA in New York, and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
Francisco Bores' Lithographs at Galerie 125
The selection presented above includes prints printed at the Mourlot studio, a reference in Parisian lithography: an original lithograph, Composition, la terre, dated around 1937, and the lithographed poster of his exhibition at the Galerie Louis Carré in 1962, a direct witness to his Parisian career. Two ideal pieces to enter the universe of a painter still too discreet considering his place in the history of modern art.
All these prints are available for online purchase, certified by the gallery, and shipped with tracking and insurance.