Juan Barjola

JUAN BARJOLA (Torre de Miguel Sesmero, Badajoz, 1919 - Madrid, 2004).
"Maternity".
Etching on paper. Exemplary 2/99.
Work reproduced in: Rubio Gil, L., Juan Barjola. Obra Gráfica". Junta de Castilla y León, 2009, p. 150.
Signed and justified.
Measurements: 91 x 64.5 cm (frame); 106 x 75 cm (paper).
The painter Juan Barjola was one of the most outstanding figures of Spanish expressionism in the second half of the 20th century. Trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid and at the Prado Museum, he began with naturalistic painting before evolving towards a post-cubist language and, briefly, towards the material abstraction of the late 1950s. He later returned to figuration influenced by the international New Figuration, close to the work of Francis Bacon, developing intense and dramatic images focused on human drama, violence and war. In the sixties his style became more fluid and luminous, with references to masters such as Velázquez, Goya and El Greco.
In the eighties his painting adopted a more lyrical and decorative tone, a period in which he received the National Plastic Arts Award (1985). His work is part of important collections, including the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and the museum dedicated to the artist in Oviedo.