The University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) has received the artistic legacy of Xoán Braxe through a loan agreement for ten pieces now housed at the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences. Rector Rosa M. Crujeiras emphasized at the donation ceremony the USC's responsibility to care for, study, and promote this work, highlighting the artist's career marked by creative freedom and social sensitivity.
Born in Ferrol in 1938, Xoán Braxe worked as a carpenter at the Bazán shipyards, involved in the naval industry and labor movement. Concurrently, he built an extensive and diverse artistic body of work in painting, sculpture, engraving, and drawing, demonstrating that creative capacity is not limited by profession or academic path, but also stems from experience and curiosity.
Braxe's self-taught talent is evident in the strength of his compositions, textures, and colors, as well as his use of reused materials like cardboard, wire, and newspapers. The rector underscored the social and political dimension of his work, addressing themes such as historical memory, the labor movement, war conflicts, injustices, and environmental defense.
For USC, this legacy represents both an opportunity and a responsibility as a public university. The commitment is to preserve heritage, facilitate its study and dissemination, and make it accessible to the university community and society. The Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences is considered a significant location for this collection, given its own artistic identity and its history of supporting contemporary Galician art.
The ceremony also included remarks from Dean Xoán Ramón Doldán and, representing the artist's family, Beatriz Brage Díaz, who provided crucial insights for interpreting the pieces.
