Saura was born in 1930 in Huesca, Spain. He is one of the most influential and respected Spanish artists of the last 50 years. In 1953, he travelled to Paris and became involved with the Surrealists, but his real contribution to the international art scene was his avante-garde position when he returned to Spain in 1957. There, he founded the ground-breaking Spanish artists' group 'El Paso' (The Step) along with fellow artist Manolo Millares - they were the first Spanish painters to react to Abstract Expressionism.

In 1958 he took part in the Venice Bienniael and in Documenta in Kassel in 1960. In the same year, he won the Guggenheim Award in New York and enjoyed a retrospective of paintings on paper and prints at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

In Madrid, he was associated with 'The Informalists,' a group of artists including Antoni Tápies who insisted that art should be removed from theory and concept. To these artists, the gesture used to make a painting was all-important.

From the end of the 1950s a significant theme in his work is the portrait, often notional pseudo-historic fantasies. He gained some notoriety in 1964 when he declared his commitment to political action, which continued until the end of the Franco period. In 1989, the Wiener Secession presented a retrospective of his works on paper.

Saura died in 1998 in Spain.