José Vela Zanetti

JOSÉ VELA ZANETTI (Milagros, Burgos, 1913 - Burgos, 1999).
"Seated peasant".
Oil on board.
It has slight damage to the frame.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 64 x 60 cm; 80 x 76 cm (frame).
Vela Zanetti is considered the painter of the soul of Castile, since he knew how to masterfully portray his land through his workers, whom he endowed with a noble, almost heroic bearing, as we see in this canvas. The essence of his painting is captured in this one: the peasant is taking a break from his daily work from sunrise to sunset. His figure occupies a large part of the painting. The fiery palette gives an olive tone to the tanned complexion of the character. The features are chiseled with an impetuous stroke, as are the hands. Here Vela Zanetti uses an expressionist and realistic language that delves into the social reality with passion. This painting by José Vela Zanetti is not only a remarkable example of his technical mastery and aesthetic sensitivity, but also a visual manifesto of his humanist ideology. Through an apparently simple rural scene, the artist manages to convey a profound reverence for work, the land and the dignity of the popular sectors, with an expressive force that transcends specific time and place.

Born in Milagros, in the province of Burgos, he moved to León with his family when he was a child. There he held his first exhibition in 1931. Supported by his father, after finishing high school he travels to Madrid for a few months to see exhibitions and visit the Prado Museum. Shortly afterwards he obtained a scholarship to visit Italy, granted by the Provincial Council of León. As a consequence of the Spanish Civil War he went to the Dominican Republic, where he remained until 1960. In Santo Domingo he started, together with other exiled artists, the National School of Fine Arts. During this period he held exhibitions and projects in Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico and the United States. In 1951 the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation of New York awarded him a grant for a singular project: the creation of a large-scale mural for one of the main spaces of the United Nations headquarters, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This project definitively catapulted the master from Burgos, and is today considered his most important work both for its symbolic relevance and for its expressiveness and artistic quality. He himself said of this work: "I hope that those who contemplate this mural will realize that peace must be won, not once and forever, but every day, remembering the sufferings of the past and making real what men aspire to for the future". Vela Zanetti also painted other important murals, such as those on historical themes for the Provincial Council of Burgos or the frescoes of the old Ercilia Theater in Barahona, Dominican Republic. He was an academician of San Fernando, and Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Burgos. The Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid held in 2001, under the title "Antológica", a retrospective exhibition on the work of Vela Zanetti, the most important to date. In 2009 an exhibition commemorating the tenth anniversary of his death was held at the Ángeles Penche gallery in Madrid. Soon, an important exhibition dedicated to the work of Vela Zanetti was held at the Fórum Evolución in Burgos, commemorating the centenary of his birth and the most complete anthology of this painter held to date. His works are currently preserved in the collections of the Caja Rural de Burgos and the Vela Zanetti Foundation in León, as well as murals in various cities in Spain, Santo Domingo, the United States, Colombia and Switzerland.