José García Ortega

JOSÉ GARCÍA ORTEGA (Ciudad Real; 1921 - Paris; 1990).
Untitled.
Carborundum engraving on paper. Exemplary P.A.
Slight damage to the frame.
Signed in the upper left corner.
Measurements: 67 x 60 cm; 81 x 75 cm (frame).
José García Ortega, known as José Ortega, was an important painter and engraver. Born in the region of Los Montes in the northwest of the province of Ciudad Real, when he was very young he moved to Madrid, where, affiliated to the FUE, he would make his first posters and murals. In 1937 he moved to live in Ciudad Real, when his father, a post office employee, was transferred to the nearby town of Picón.
After the Civil War he would work in a painting and decoration workshop, joining the Communist Party in 1941, being prosecuted for political activities and serving five years in prison. Pardoned in 1952, he would enroll in the National School of Graphic Arts and in the Circle of Fine Arts of Madrid, obtaining in 1953 a scholarship that would allow him to study in the Ecole Estienne and in the Ecole des Beaux Arts of Paris. In 1955 he was awarded the Gold Medal at the International Youth Festival in Warsaw and in 1956 he exhibited at the Alfil Gallery in Madrid along with Palacios Tardez and Ruiz Pernias, founding in 1958 the Grupo Estampa Popular and publishing the Manifiesto del Arte Contra.
In 1960 he would go into exile in Paris, where he would work in Friedlaender's workshop, organizing in November 1961 an exhibition at the Parisian gallery Epona, and in December a similar show at the Pläne gallery in Düsseldorf; during his stay in Paris, his production would focus mainly on the graphic work linked to Estampa Popular. In 1963 he received the Gold Medal of the International Congress of Art Critics, moving in 1964 to Rome and later to Matera, remaining in Italy for twelve years, where he would not only attend to graphic production but also to easel painting. Selected in 1965 for the Prix des Eleven and the Prix de la Critique in Paris, between 1969 and 1970 he worked on the twenty engravings that make up the series of The Reapers, the result of his research into a new form of expression combining the techniques of lithographic stone and engraving. In 1976 and after Franco's death, he returned to Spain, exhibiting that same year in Madrid and Bilbao. In 1977 he would reappear again in his province of origin presenting in the Tartessos bookstore of Ciudad Real the series Decálogo para la democracia española (Decalogue for the Spanish democracy). Also, and faithful to his political commitment, he would collaborate with the Communist Party in the first democratic elections. Between 1980 and 1987 he would carry out numerous exhibitions, being also present his work during that period in the editions of Arco. He died in Paris on December 24, 1990.