On March 3, Horacio Pérez Hita (Barcelona, 1963) died in his hometown, a unique connoisseur of frames who, thanks to his long dedication to the study and search for frames, had become a reference for museums and collectors.
He began collaborating at the Prado Museum during the time when Gabriele Finaldi, current director of the National Gallery in London, was deputy director of Conservation and Restoration (2002-2015). As a person trained in the Anglo-Saxon world, Finaldi taught us to value the frame as a fundamental element when it comes to properly presenting a painting and ensured that the museum treated its own collection of frames as a collection itself. It was at that time that Horacio Pérez Hita appeared in the museum, with long dedication from his workshop in Ciutat Vella. Horacio had studied Art History and, as the son of an antique dealer, he embarked on his first career path in the art market. One of the tasks was to frame works, drawings, prints or paintings. He got good at it and got hooked on the frames and everything they required for their recovery and proper use. He studied the history of the frame, but he also worked hard to find pieces, visiting antique dealers, dealers, individuals or fairs. He also restored them, recovering their structural function, color and patinas, enjoying the value of each molding.
Choosing a frame required a process that suited her curious and speculative personality. “I saw that the world of the framework is conceptually very complex, and it is curious that a large number of the studies on the framework have been written by philosophers.” And Horace was certainly a recognized and admired scholar, but above all a philosopher. He argued with passion, with extraordinary diction and an ability to transmit and teach that made each presence in the museum a happy event. He remembered the way in which the French Impressionists looked for Rococo frames to surround their creations with “bourgeois respectability,” just as Picasso looked for frames in rakes that often conditioned his own creations… “Even Rothko wanted to say something with that little strip of wood” with which he framed his compositions.
I recommend that readers interested in enjoying Horacio Pérez Hita watch the documentary that the Prado dedicated to its collection of frames, and see the way in which Horacio paid attention to all those details necessary to frame a work, looking for that molding that helps to properly look at a work of art, without taking away its prominence, effectively accompanying its contemplation.
In addition to his publications and participation in courses, the memory and good work of this framer who gave the profession a new dimension, is preserved in national and international museums (Prado, National Heritage, Reina Sofía, Picasso of Barcelona, Dalí de figures, Metropolitan of New York, The Frick Collection or The Hispanic Society), art galleries and important private collections. He framed works by old masters (Patinir, Velázquez, Zurbarán, El Greco, Luis de Morales, Veroneses, Caravaggio and Goya) and by very diverse contemporary authors (Sorolla, Fortuny, Warhol, Rouault, Matisse…).
He suffered with humor and wisdom a long illness, a cancer that has deprived us of a unique and unrepeatable character; from a professional who taught us that framing was truly an art.