News Exhibition

Sáenz de Oíza, ICO Museum

Art and Architecture

31/03/2020

The work of the world’s great architects exceeds the time limits of the anniversaries that the media is in the practice of using to attract readers. A clear case in point of course is Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza, whose centenary was extensively observed in 2018 (see Arquitectura Viva 208) yet who just two years later returns to the limelight thanks to a magnificent exhibition that three of the master’s children – Javier, Vicente, and Marisa Sáenz Guerra – have curated and can now be visited at the ICO Museum in Madrid, until 26 April. ‘Sáenz de Oíza: Arts and Crafts,’ as it is titled, gathers an array of plans, models, paintings, sculptures, and special objects belonging to Oíza’s private archives. The show also presents a substantial selection of pieces by Eduardo Chillida, Antonio López, Jorge Oteiza, and Pablo Palazuelo – artists whom the Navarrese architect worked hand in hand with and had personal affinity and ties of friendship with – that throw light on a theme of historiograhic interest and current relevance, namely the ever open relationship between architecure and the rest of the arts.

Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza and Luis Laorga Gutiérrez, Aránzazu, 134. Details of windows in transept, 25 October 1952. Ink on vellum. © Luis Marino Cigüenza

Francisco Javier Saénz de Oíza. Palacio de Festivales de Santander, 29. Floor plan and section of capitals and entrance canopy. Ink on vellum. 63 x 87 cm. Private collection.

Francisco Javier Saénz de Oíza, José Luis Romaní, and Jorge Oteiza. Competition for Camino de Santiago chapel in wheat field, 1954. Private collection.