Luis García-Abrines Calvo

Luis García-Abrines Calvo (June 21, 1923, Zaragoza, Spain – May 17, 2016, New Haven, Connecticut) was a Spanish-American professor of music at the University of New Haven. Calvo was the son of Adolfo García-Abrines Calvo, an otolaryngologist located in Barcelona, and Francisca Calvo Escanero, a photographer, born in Azuara, Zaragoza. He followed his studies at the Jesuits School El Salvador in Zaragoza and the High School at the Institutes Miguel Servet and Goya, in the same city. Won an opposition of the Bank of Aragon and was sent to Madrid in 1940. There he began his piano studies with Luis Galve. Dissatisfied with a work that did not go well with his temperament, he decided to come back to Zaragoza two years later, devoting himself to Art in its different disciplines.
In Zaragoza, he made acquaintance with Miguel Labordeta, Manuel Derqui, Pilar Bayona and Alfonso Buñuel. With the latter, he became familiar with Luis Buñuel´s books, movies, documents and objects, approaching both of them to the Surrealist movement, being Alfonso his first master in the art of collage.
During the 40s, he began his studies of Philosophy in Zaragoza. In 1944 he attended the Fifth Summer School of the Oviedo University as a resident student. In 1948, he completed her university studies in Madrid, with a degree in Romance Philology. In 1950, he founded the Academia Miral for college students, while he begins his research work on Literature, with scholarly editions and critical reviews of various works. That same year he was co-founder with Manuel Derqui Martos the Sansueña Musical Society, section of the Modern Chamber Music and the Philharmonic Society of Zaragoza.
After some problems with the SEU, (Spanish University Sindicate), he got a scholarship from the French government and travels to Paris in 1952 to study contemporary music. He contacted there some aragonite exiled artists, such as Honorio García Condoy and Fermín Aguayo. He also met Pablo Picasso, Pierre Boulez, Oscar Dominguez and Jaime Sabartés. He participated in the Spanish Pavilion Exhibition campus and had a relationship with Margaret Jounakos, whom he married in Madrid in 1954 before going to the United States, where he was a professor of Spanish Literature at Yale University. From this first marriage, (1954–1960), his son David was born.
In 1959, he returned one year to Spain to investigate the life and work of the Spanish baroque poet Juan Del Valle y Caviedes, starting works that will be released in the 90s with the sponsorship of the Diputación Provincial de Jaén. In 1960, he published Así sueña el profeta en sus palabras, his first book of collage published in Spain. Once he was back in America, he taught in the South Central Community College until his retirement. In 1967, he married Ellen Marie Branchini, also a professor with a doctorate (Ph.D.) from Yale, and they have twin daughters, Linda and Alicia.
Besides the research works on Literature and Music, and his three books of collages, the book that best defines his art and personality is Ciudadano del mundo, (Citizen of the world), self-published anthology that brings aphorisms, poems, short stories, puzzles and caligramas.
His most important teachers are Goya, Quevedo, Luis and Alfonso Buñuel brothers, Pilar Bayona and, specially, Baltasar Gracian.
He settled in New Haven, Connecticut, where he served as Justice of the Peace.

In 1959, March 23, he became a citizen of the United States.

In 1973, January 27, he was named Fellow Associate in Arts of the Branford College of Yale University.

In 1977, October 4, he was elected corresponding academic in the United States of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, filling the vacancy left by Stravinsky.

In 1982, 23 July, the University of New Haven, Connecticut, honoured him with the title of Distinguished Lecturer in the School of Arts and Sciences.

In 1982, October 9, the Zaragoza City Council granted him with the title of favorite son of the city.

In 1997, 6 January, the state of Connecticut (USA), named him Justice of the Peace of the City of New Haven.

The 2000, on 4 July, the Diputación Provincial of Zaragoza awarded him with the Gold Medal of Santa Isabel of Aragon, Queen of Portugal.

• Alcázar imperial de la fama del Gran Capitán, la coronación y las cuatro partidas del mundo de Alonso Gómez de Figueroa; Library of Old Spanish books of the Miguel de Cervantes Institute, C.S.I.C., Madrid,

1951.

• Instrucción de música sobre la guitarra española de Gaspar Sanz; facsímile, Institución Fernando el Católico, Zaragoza, 1952.
• Diente del Parnaso. Manuscrito de la Universidad de Yale.(Critical edition of the homonym Juan del Valle y Caviedes´ work). Diputación Provincial of Jaén, Jaén 1993.
• Poesías sueltas y bailes.(Critical edition of the homonym Juan del Valle y Caviedes´ work). Diputación Provincial de Jaén, Jaén 1994.
• Carnestolendas de Zaragoza en sus tres días. (Critical edition of the homonym Antolínez de Piedrabuena´s work). ISBN 84-7820-788-0. Institución Fernando el Católico, Zaragoza, 2005.

Calvo gave away his works at the end of the exhibitions in which he participated, so they are scattered among private collections. The Museum of Zaragoza custodies original collages published in the book Así sueña el profeta en sus palabras. The Etching Museum of Fuendetodos has one of his paintings. Some of his known ready-made and assemblages were lost and others kept by the author and his family. La Residencia de Estudiantes has another of his collages. The Museum of Teruel keeps the collage that took part in the exhibition held simultaneously with the conference about the collage in Spain. Also, keeps the object with which the author contributed to the exhibition That obscure desire of the object, held during the conference on the Surrealist object.

• Ciudadano del mundo, Publications of the IPO, New Haven-Azuara, 1980.

• Así sueña el profeta en sus palabras; Col. Orejudín, Zaragoza, 1960 (reissued in 2000).
• Crisicollages para Luis Buñuel; Gateway Editions, Zaragoza, 1980.

Variaciones sobre la Donna e mobile, solo de gaita para hombres; Institución Fernando el católico, Zaragoza, 1988.