Costa, Rafael Tur

Rafael Tur Costa (Santa Eulària des Riu, Ibiza, 1927 – 2020) Rafael Tur Costa lived and worked in Ibiza. He studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Ibiza, though may be considered self-taught. In 1955 he met members of the Berlin Hochschule Für Bildende Künste, a group of German fine arts students, who introduced him to the artistic innovations of the European avant-garde. His creative restlessness led him to become involved with the art circles of Madrid and Barcelona, and he also maintained constant relations with the Ibiza 59 group, formed on the island in 1959. While black appears to be the predominant colour in his initial abstracts of the 1960s, in later works he would reveal a preference for white, resulting from his research work on the pictorial and the evolution of his own language. In addition to exhibitions in the USA and Europe, his work has been displayed in the Museu d’Art Contemporani d’Eivissa in Ibiza (1983, 1997) and the Casal Solleric in Palma, Mallorca (1997). It forms part of such collections as those of Palma City Council, the Government of the Balearic Islands, the Museu d’Art Contemporani d’Eivissa, the Museo Internacional Salvador Allende (Santiago de Chile) and the National Gallery of Modern Art (New Delhi).