José Freixanes

JOSÉ FREIXANES (Pontevedra, 1953).
“Political Transition,” Vigo, 1975.
Mixed media (ink and watercolor) on paper.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 50 x 69.5 cm; 67.5 x 87 cm (frame).

Created in 1975, “Political Transition” is one of José Freixanes’ most incisive works, in which the artist presents a powerful allegory of the historic moment that marked the end of Franco’s dictatorship and the beginning of the Spanish Transition. Through a disturbing group of figures transformed into marionettes—suspended by invisible strings and devoid of individual identity—Freixanes constructs an image charged with symbolic tension that invites reflection on power, manipulation, and the fragility of the human condition during a period of profound political transformation.

José Freixanes studied Fine Arts in Bilbao and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, furthering his studies thanks to a scholarship from the Provincial Council of Pontevedra. He is associated with the Atlántica movement and is a member of the Juana Mordó Gallery; currently, in addition to his artistic career, he works as a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Granada. His work has been exhibited in Santiago de Compostela, Bilbao, Madrid, Vigo, Santander, Ibiza, Damascus (Syria), Casablanca (Morocco), and elsewhere; and is held in both private collections and several major institutions (the MEAC Collection, the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, the Chase Manhattan Bank Collection in New York, the UNED Collection (Madrid), the Caja Madrid Collection, etc.).