Jose Luis Fuentetaja

JOSÉ LUIS FUENTETAJA (Madrid, 1951).
Untitled, 1977.
Mixed media on paper.
Signed and dated in the upper left corner.
Measurements: 34 x 28 cm; 53 x 43 cm (frame).
José Luis Fuentetaja starts working in advertising at the age of thirteen, while attending the School of Arts and Crafts of Vallecas. A year later he travels to Geneva, where he comes into direct contact with painting and decides to devote himself to it exclusively. On his return to Spain he enrolled in Fine Arts, and in 1966 he visited Sitges for the first time, where he returned every year and later took up residence. In these years he began to sell his paintings at the Rastro in Madrid and later in Sitges, in the street. Also at this time he began his travels through Europe, painting views of Paris, London and Amsterdam. During these bohemian years he settled in Gran Canaria for five years. In 1969 he became friends with Sidney Nagley, who organized his first exhibition in Toronto (Canada). In Spain he made his debut in 1970 at the Ateneo de Barcelona, and shortly after the Count of Caralt commissioned him to illustrate a new edition of García Lorca's "Romancero gitano". A few days before starting his military service, he inaugurates an exhibition of his hyperrealist works at the "Quatre Gats" gallery in Palma de Mallorca. During the last twenty years he has alternated his work between his two workshops, in Sitges and Goa (India); the chromatic and luminous explosion of India and Nepal have defined his language ever since. Throughout his career, Fuentetaja has shown his work both in Spain and in Milan, Geneva, New York, Sintra, Lisbon, Miami and Toronto.