Cirilo Martínez Novillo

CIRILO MARTÍNEZ NOVILLO (Madrid, 1921 - 2008).
"The grandfather".
Watercolor on paper.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Work published in "Drawings by Martínez Novillo", text by Gerardo Diego, Cuadernos de Arte nº11, Ibérico Europea de Ediciones.
Measurements: 23.5 x 33 cm; 54 x 64 cm (frame).

Cirilo Martínez Novillo is one of the most outstanding representatives of the so-called School of Madrid, the city where he began his training at the School of Arts and Crafts. During the Civil War he enters the Escuela Superior de Pintura and attends the workshop of Daniel Vázquez Díaz, who will become his teacher, supporting him throughout his career. In his workshop, Martínez Novillo met some of the painters linked to the Madrid School: Álvaro Delgado, Gregorio del Olmo, García Ochoa or San José. In 1946 he presents his work for the first time, in the framework of a collective exhibition held at the Bucholz gallery in Madrid. The following year he held his first individual exhibition at the same gallery. In 1948 he holds an exhibition in the prints room of the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid, the critics begin to echo his work and he is selected to participate in the exhibition "Spanish Art", held in Buenos Aires and organized by the Ministry of Education. From this moment on, he shows his work in several Spanish cities and in France, and participates in group exhibitions such as the Venice Biennial (1950) or the Salón de los Once (1951). Between 1952 and 1953 he travels three times to Paris thanks to different scholarships. His period of maturity begins with a new visit to Paris at the beginning of the sixties, to later travel to Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Belgium, obtaining several medals in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, as well as the Painting Prize of the Hispano-American Biennial of Cuba. Although not part of the Second School of Vallecas, Martínez Novillo's painting is aesthetically close to that of the group. His production is mainly focused on landscape painting and still lifes, although at first he also dedicated himself to the figure. The painter elaborates his landscapes by means of a direct contemplation of nature, not by copying it, because later in his studio he makes a selection of what interests him. Cirilo Martínez Novillo is represented in the Reina Sofía Museum, the Mapfre, AENA, Gaya Nuño and Santander Central Hispano Foundations, the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art of Madrid, the Fine Arts Museums of Bilbao and Oviedo, the Argentaria, Caja España and Telefónica collections and the Valdepeñas Museum.