Benjamin Palencia

BENJAMÍN PALENCIA (Barrax, Albacete, 1894 - Madrid, 1980).
"Avila", 1946.
Pen on paper.
Attached certificate of authenticity issued by the Benjamín Palencia Archive.
Signed, dated and titled in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 46 x 31 cm.
Essential figure of the Spanish artistic modernity, Benjamín Palencia stood out as a landscape painter and as a promoter, together with Alberto Sánchez, of the School of Vallecas, one of the most influential movements of the Spanish avant-garde before the Civil War. Trained outside the academic channels, he found in the Prado Museum and in the tradition of the Castilian landscape a constant source of inspiration. His stay in Paris in 1926 decisively broadened his artistic horizon, incorporating surrealist influences and experimental procedures learned after his contact with Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and other avant-garde artists. From the 1940s onwards he consolidated a personal style characterized by the intensity of color, formal simplification and a lyrical and emotional interpretation of the Castilian landscape, becoming one of the most original voices of 20th century Spanish art.