DETAILS:
84" x 42"
Acrylic on Canvas
Original Artwork
2023
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Paul Ygartua
Creation and interpretation is Paul’s life. In painting he is at home in all mediums and prodigious. His styles include Realism, Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism, Postmodernism, Surrealism, Abstract Surrealism and Future Conceptualism, a revolutionary technique developed and created by Ygartua. His continuous study and work on techniques and painting mediums are apparent throughout his vast body of work. Paul Ygartua is an artist whose versatility is reflected in his work. He is among those who live elsewhere than their birthplaces. He was born in 1945 in Bebington, Cheshire (Liverpool) England. After graduating from the Faculty of Arts Industrial Design, Liverpool Art College 1963-65 and City & Guilds of London Institute,1965 in 1966 he immigrated to Vancouver, Canada. From then on painting became his whole existence.
Ygartua is a painter and muralist with bases in Canada, France, Spain and England. He has single handedly painted some of the largest public space murals in Canada and the United States. His most famous works are his “Heritage Series” depicting North American Natives and other ethnic and cultural groups. He is renown world wide for his monumental murals. “The World United ” (100ftx25ft/3,048cmx762cm) being one of his most notorious, commissioned by the United Nations for the United Nations Pavilion at the World Expo 86 Vancouver and his largest to date “Legends of the Millennium”, over 9,000 square foot (24ftx390ft/731cmx11,872cm). The American website ASKART considers it probably the largest mural ever painted by a single artist. His most recent mural in 2013, United in History, commemorating the history of Denny Island and The Heiltsuk Nation, Bella Bella – Pauline Hilistis Waterfall and the Hereditary Chiefs of the Heiltsuk Nation, Bella Bella dubbed him The Mural Miracle Maker.
In addition to his most frequent work locations in Vancouver; Paris, France; and Bilbao and Barcelona, Spain; he has also worked for extended periods on projects in Berlin, Germany (1968); Acapulco and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (1971, 1999 and 2000); Crete and Corfu, Greece (1972); Gran Canaria, Canary Islands (1973); Scottsdale, Arizona (1976); New Orleans, Louisiana (1978); Jerusalem, Israel (1980); Honolulu, Hawaii (1981 and 1982); Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1984); San Juan, Puerto Rico (1985); Quebec City, Canada (1994); Montreal, Canada (2001); and Sydney, Australia (2002).
His primary mediums are acrylics on canvas and fresco, although he has also worked in oil, graphite, pen and ink, pastel, poster, lithograph, and mixed mediums. His subjects include landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes, figures, portraits, still life, nudes, social commentary, cultural anthropology, native Indians, and as an abstractionist – shape, color, line, and texture. His styles include Realism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Abstract Expressionism, Neo-Expressionism, Surrealism and Abstract Surrealism. His most famous works are his “Heritage Series” depicting North American Indians and other ethnic and cultural groups from around the world.
In addition to the thousands of works in private and corporate collections, Ygartua’s works are also in the collections of the Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa; Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C.; and the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Alberta.
