Manuel Colmeiro Guimarás

MANUEL COLMEIRO GUIMARÁS (Pontevedra, 1901 - Salvaterra do Minho, Pontevedra, 1999).
"Galician women".
India ink on paper.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Work cataloged in: Agustín Rodríguez, "Cuadernos de Arte".
Measurements: 50 x 65 cm; 66 x 82 cm (frame).

In "Galician Women", Manuel Colmeiro displays the poetic essence of his plastic universe, centered in the dignity and serenity of the rural feminine figures. Executed in India ink, the work combines the expressive forcefulness of the stroke with a marked lyrical sensibility, generating a play of light and shadow that endows the figures with volume and sculptural presence. The economy of means - reduced to black and white - reinforces the emotional intensity of the subject, a symbol of the peasant Galicia that Colmeiro turned into the axis of his pictorial language.

Manuel Colmeiro, an outstanding member of the group "Os Novos" or "Os Renovadores", is one of the fundamental figures of 20th century Galician art. After training in Buenos Aires and at the San Fernando Academy, he developed an intense international career between Galicia, Argentina and Paris, where he joined the so-called Spanish School of Paris. His work evolved from an initial expressionism towards a synthesis between avant-garde modernity and Galician popular roots, in harmony with artists such as Seoane, Laxeiro or Souto.

Colmeiro achieved international renown from the 1960s onwards, with exhibitions in London, Paris and Madrid, and was recognized with distinctions such as the Premio das Artes de la Xunta de Galicia (1987) and the Premio Celanova Casa dos Poetas (1996). His work is preserved in outstanding collections and institutions, among them the Afundación Collection, the María José Jove Foundation, the ABANCA Collection and the Museum of Pontevedra.