Mariano Villalta

MARIANO VILLALTA LAPAYESE (Madrid, 1927 - Rome, 1984).
"Composition". 1975.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated.
Measurements: 70 x 50 cm; 73 x 52 cm (frame).
Follower of the abstract and neo-figurative current, Mariano Villalta developed his career as an artist in European capitals such as Madrid and Rome, also passing through Vallaury (France), where he was invited by Picasso. Villalta was part of the generation of Spanish artists who emigrated to Rome, specifically to the Trastevere district, during the sixties and seventies, and which was composed of artists such as Alberti himself, Maria Teresa León, Pepe Ortega, Aquilino Duque or Mariano Bayo. A friend of the poet Rafael Alberti, he was a significant artist within contemporary aesthetics. Villalta exhibited in the main capitals of the world. In fact, in 1961 he did so at the Museum of Modern Art in Cincinnati (United States), along with artists such as Picasso and Baquero Palacios, an exhibition that highlighted his strong artistic personality. Among his numerous works, the two murals he painted in New York and London (1965 and 1967) for the Greek company Olimpic Airlines and the frescoes for the churches of the Italian capital stand out. Villalta has been awarded numerous prizes, among them the one granted by the Municipality of Rome in 1972 for his artistic merits, and the one of the International Competition Olympiad of Rome.