Literary Figures

Viar Olloqui, Javier

A multifaceted figure in Basque culture. Born in Bilbao in 1946. He passed away on 28 October 2021.

Graduate in Pharmacy (Madrid, 1969). He was president of the Official College of Pharmacists of Vizcaya (1982-1988) and belonged to the General Council of Pharmaceutical Colleges and the Farmacia 2000 Health Advisory Commission.

A poet and novelist, he published the poetry collections El Paraíso a cambio (1989) and Ciudad en cauce/Hiria Uhaskan 1970-2002 (2003); the novels La muerte de la novia (1992, Pío Baroja Prize 1991) and La agonía del ángel (1992). He is also the author of the short story La muerte de la novia (City of Irun Prize 1992) as well as various poems and stories in anthologies such as Diecisiete poetas de Bilbao (Seventeen Poets of Bilbao, 1974) and Poesía en Bilbao (Poetry in Bilbao, 1986 and 1991), and collective books such as 23 (1981).

J. Viar's literary work is characterised by his predilection for baroque and surrealist expression, his interest in language, his cultured references and his variety of expressive resources, which sometimes place it in the realm of the experimental and endow it with an ironic and strongly pessimistic distance. Above all, his poetry incorporates aspects of different manifestations of a hermetic tradition. In it, one can detect his interest in both the trobar clus of the Provençal troubadours and Gongorism or modern Baroque. At the same time, the surrealist influence is almost always present in the daring freedom of his highly visual images and in his automatic writing techniques.

He has written numerous articles on art, especially on contemporary Basque art, which have appeared since 1972 in various newspapers, cultural magazines and exhibition catalogues. His most important work in this regard is the critical monograph on the Guipuzcoan painter Rafael Ruiz Balerdi Balerdi. La experiencia infinita (1993).

His experience in the field of fine arts is wide and varied. He has curated exhibitions such as Balerdi, la experiencia infinita (1993-1994), Chillida, Barlerdi Larre (1995) and Carmelo Ortiz Elguea, 153 pinturas (1999). He was a member of the first Advisory Council for acquisitions at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, alongside Kosme Barañano, Javier González de Durana and José Manuel Bonet, among others. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum for 13 years and has been its Director since 2002.

In 2008, he was awarded the Medal of Knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters.

AEE