Between 1919 and 1934 Carlos Sáenz de Tejada (Tánger, 1897 – Madrid, 1958) collaborated as illustrator with the newspaper "La Libertad", as well as a number of magazines and other publications. Having shown a penchant for art from an early age, he combined painting with his work as an illustrator, an activity that he began in 1914, as well as other artistic disciplines. 1925 marked a turning point in his artistic career when the studio which he shared with Francisco Bores was destroyed by fire. After losing most of his work, he decided to give up painting and concentrate on his work as an illustrator, an activity that would occupy Tejada for the rest of his life.

North Gallery
From 2006 November 9 to 2007 February 18

He illustrated novels, developed skills as an engraver and lithographer, designed costumes and theatre sets, and collaborated with a large number of national and international news and fashion magazines. It was in the world of fashion where he received the encouragement of Sonia Delaunay. But it was in "La Libertad", the newspaper with which he collaborated for more than 15 years, where he matured as an illustrator and was afforded the possibility of depicting the political and social situation of that time.

On March 18 2005, the Sáenz de Tejada family deposited the Tejada Collection in ARTIUM of Alava, consisting of 186 works by this artist, dated between 1922 and 1934, and a documentary archive that complements and contextualises these works.

Part of the deposit is made up of 183 original drawings, most of them for the newspaper "La Libertad", where he began to work after the daily newspaper "El Liberal" broke up in 1919, until the crisis of the former in October 1934.

This exhibition provides samples from a number of different sections of the paper: “Antena”, published on the front page of "La Libertad" between October 1933 and during 1934; "La novela de La Libertad", novels which where published in instalments between 1925 and 1933; “Estampas españolas”, in 1934 and “Viejas estampas” and “Aspectos de París” in 1925 and 1930 respectively, as well as other drawings, which, while not pertaining to any specific section, illustrated the Society sections of "La Libertad".

The illustrations he did for the “Antena” section reveal, more than any others, Tejada's great talent as a draughtsman, adapting to the editorial line of a newspaper geared to the interests of the public at large. Through a number of different themes he reflected both the elitist ambiences of the upper classes to the world of the slums, and included popular customs, festivals and the sporting and cultural events of the time.

In these drawings, Carlos Sáenz de Tejada did not seek the immediacy and realism of a photographic camera but verisimilitude, through depictions of scenes and figures inspired by popular life, which he drew with clear, precise lines and with perspectives that contribute dynamism to these drawings and which, in some ways, characterise Tejada's style of that period.