REDISCOVERED GENIUSES : Juan Antonio Guirado & Igor Gorsky
Juan Antonio moved to Madrid at the age of 18 to study portraiture at the San Fernando Academy, later travelling to Italy and France studying Italian Renaissance and French Impressionism. In 1955, Guirado was commissioned to paint a series of murals in New York, and he had his first major exhibition in Miami in 1956. Guirado immigrated to Australia in the late 50s due to the social political climate, becoming interested in Oriental religions, in particular Hindu Philosophy Vedanta, which influenced his signature style.
He returned to his homeland of Spain in 1973 and became one of the most represented Spanish contemporary artists in museums and international collections that included King Hussein of Jordan, J.D. Salinger, and John Schlesinger, and by globally renowned museums including the National Museum Reina Sofia and the National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta.
Igor Gorsky’s path to becoming an Abstract Expressionist painter was extraordinary. Born George Vassilopoulos in Athens in 1936, he was an engineer, economics theorist and pioneering member of the think tank that created the Nasdaq securities exchange in 1971 and didn’t become an artist until the age of 52.
The decision to become an artist happened in 1988, when aged 52 he fell in love with Evita Myriam, a deeply spiritual Greek artist, who recognised his artistic talent. He soon developed an obsession with painting, working all night and developing a technique that involved boldly splashing and pouring car enamel onto canvas until he achieved the visual effects for which he was striving. “He moved like a ballet dancer, like Nureyev,” recalled Evita, “whom he had met when he was very young.”
