COLITA Isabel Steva Hernández

COLITA Isabel Steva Hernández - Elsa Peretti in Bocaccio

Artist Biography: Isabel Steva "Colita" was born in Barcelona, in the heart of the Eixample district, on August 24, 1940, at siesta time. He studied until he was 17 years old at the Sacré-Coeur school, and after finishing his pre-university degree in letters, he moved to Paris for a year to study French Civilization at the Sorbonne University. On her return to Barcelona, she met the photographers Oriol Maspons, Julio Ubiña, Francesc Català Roca and Xavier Miserachs, from whom she learned the "trade" and became a professional photographer, although she has always considered Paco Rebés as her "discoverer" and mentor. She specializes in portraiture and is considered one of the photographers of the so-called Gauche Divine. Colita, in 40 years of profession, has held more than 40 exhibitions and published more than 30 photography books. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museo Reina Sofía and the Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), and part of his extensive work is deposited in the Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya, the Arxiu Municipal de Barcelona, the Institut del Teatre, the Fundació Campalans, the Fundació Brossa and the Filmoteca de Catalunya. She has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2012. In 2014 he was awarded the National Photography Prize, an award that he rejected due to the situation of culture and education in Spain at the time. In 2015 he was awarded the Bartolomé Ros Prize for the best Spanish career in photography. The jury, made up of Rosa Ros, responsible for the legacy of Bartolomé Ros; Gervasio Sánchez, photographer; Rafael Doctor Roncero, curator; João Fernandes, Deputy Director of the Museo Reina Sofía; and Alberto Anaut, president of PHotoEspaña, want to recognize with this award "the coherence of his career, his professional independence and the whole of his work, witness of an era, lived from within. In January 2017 he exhibited Colita Flamenco at the Palace of Charles V of the Alhambra in Granada, a selection of his best flamenco photographs, of which a magnificent catalogue was published for the occasion. Another milestone in his professional career. In November 2018 and coinciding with the 40th Anniversary of the Spanish Constitution, the great exhibition The Power of Art is organized in the Senate and the Congress (Madrid), where Colita exhibits 40 photographs belonging to the collection of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) and has the honor of being chosen as one of her images of the Spanish transition as a poster and graphic image of it.