José Orús

JOSÉ ORÚS (Zaragoza, 1931–2014).
Untitled. “Age of Metals,” c. 1960.
Mixed media on panel.
Signed in the lower right corner. Signed on the reverse.
Measurements: 50 x 65 cm; 63 x 77 cm (frame).
José Orús’s so-called “Age of Metals” is a particularly interesting phase in his career, which began around 1959–1960 and unfolded throughout the 1960s. It is characterized by the incorporation of metallic pigments and by an exploration of the effects of light on the pictorial material. This exploration is linked to his time in Paris, where Orús lived from 1955 to 1965, and to his evolution from material-based Informalism toward an abstraction increasingly centered on luminosity.
A self-taught painter, José Orús began painting in 1949, and just two years later he was selected to participate in the First Hispano-American Biennial in Madrid. He was a co-founder of the avant-garde Niké art salon and gained international recognition through his participation in the Paris (1961) and Venice (1964) biennials. Throughout his life, he held numerous exhibitions, and his work is currently on display at the museum that bears his name in Zaragoza, as well as at the Municipal Museum of Utebo.