If you were in Ibiza during the 1980s you undoubtedly, though perhaps unconsciously, admired the work of French artist Yves Uro (Paris, 1954). The prolific French artist signed the posters for many of the discotheques that were active between the late 1970s and early 1990s, especially Ku, whose legendary logo also came from Uro's tireless creativity.
The work of the French artist has been compiled by his sister Catherine in a book entitled Uro Vision, published by IDEA, which has just released its second edition with new contents. Among the novelties of the second edition, in addition to more graphic material by the artist and a cover in which the colours are inverted with respect to the first, Catherine includes the travel diary she wrote while repeating in 2021 the steps that took her brother to Ibiza in 1976.
"Someone recommended that he come to Ibiza, so he ended up coming here," explains Catherine Uro, who says that Yves' beginnings as an artist in Ibiza were "on the beach, making caricatures of people to earn some money". "Yves was a very communicative and extroverted person", Catherine describes, arguing that "working on the beach he ended up meeting and making a lot of friends, including many who had bars in Ibiza".
In this way, "Yves began to make drawings and designs for bar signs and business cards for different businesses", among which were famous places such as El Mono Desnudo or La Tierra, as well as businesses such as the hairdresser's La Tignaese, the record shop Flip Music or the Croissant Show, of which Catherine says that "Yves made his first business card". "It didn't take him long to get to know a large part of the French community in Ibiza," explains Catherine.
It didn't take Yves Uro long to open his own workshop in Atzara street, Hay Tiempo in 1977. "It was actually called Hay tiempo de pinchar un huevo, which is a French expression translated into Spanish," says Catherine. "In the workshop he made silkscreen prints, but later on he started to use ofsset", explains Catherine, to justify that "from 78, when he opened Ku and started to work with them, the prints were made in Gráficas Pitiusas".
Ku
In this way, Yves worked with the Ku nightclub from the very beginning and Catherine recalls that "at the beginning they had a very ugly logo, as if inspired by a Hawaiian totem pole, which my brother changed immediately". Catherine is referring to the famous Ku logo that has become a symbol of 1980s Ibiza.
Creativity
Yves Uro's creativity is matched only by the productivity of this artist, who "made between 300 and 400 posters in Ibiza", as his sister says.
Among Uro's hundreds of creations to illustrate all kinds of parties in Ibiza in the 80s, we can distinguish an infinite number of styles and techniques ranging from the most basic and bare pencil to airbrushing or collage, always handmade at a time when the digital era was still to come.
The references in the French artist's work are also so varied as to range from the aesthetics of comics, "of which he was very fond", or the most eighties science fiction to the most romantic surrealism with which he used to illustrate the full moon nights of the Ku, passing through the bullfighting motifs that invited people to attend the San Fermín festival at the Sant Rafel club. Not forgetting his more provocative proposals to promote the parties of 'Miss Tanga', 'Noche en ropa interior' or 'Invertida'.
"Even today, looking through his work, I discover details I've never seen before," says Catherine, pointing to a declaration of love to his girl, Alice, half-hidden in one of her brother's posters.
In 1991, Yves travelled from Ibiza to Tenerife with the Ku discotheque to set up a discotheque there. "He stayed there until November 1994", Catherine recalls with regret, explaining that "by then he was already very ill and returned home, where he died in January 1995".
Artist, in spite of everything
"My brother was always very creative, but my father was an engineer and it was clear to him that his son should be one too," explains Catherine, who says that "when he started studying engineering, he met students from the Le Bousart art school and decided he wanted to study fine arts". "He proposed it to my father, who made it a condition for him to come first in the fine arts competition in Metz (the city where we grew up)," explains Catherine, who proudly adds that "he won the competition and was able to study fine arts, although he only lasted two years: his creativity went beyond the limits of academicism".
Tribute
The contribution that Yves Uro made with his creativity, revolutionising the world of Ibizan discotheque posters with designs that are now part of the island's graphic history and influencing a good number of artists, deserves recognition. Recognition that has not gone unnoticed by the Retro Association, which in its tribute to graphic designers in February 2023 did not miss the well-deserved recognition of Yves Uro together with the Consell d'Eivissa and the Sant Antoni Town Hall. "When we did the tribute, we gave the distinction to Pepe Guasch, from Gráficas Pitiusas, who always worked with Uro side by side and who always took care of him in his worst moments", explains Pepe Pilot, from the Retro Association before addressing Catherine to explain that "we have made a new distinction, which is a sculpture of the Ibizan ceramist Toniet, to give it to his sister with all the honour it means to us".
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