Carmelo García Barrena

CARMELO GARCÍA BARRENA (Bilbao, 1926 - 2000).
"Witches".
Oil on canvas.
Presents damages in the frame.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 65 x 54 cm; 91 x 80 cm (frame).
Carmelo García Barrena was a Spanish painter of great importance for his varied subject matter (landscapes, figures, portraits...) and his particular style, with a very peculiar impressionism, almost abstract still lifes, modeled with objects, geometric forms and glazes, influence of the Flemish masters, scenes of circus and festive figures..., with a great dominion and knowledge of the pictorial technique. Exiled as a child in Belgium because of the Civil War, his pictorial vocation arose there, and he began his training at the School of Fine Arts in Antwerp. In 1946 he entered the Academy of the Biscayan Artistic Association and, given the lack of artistic environment in his hometown at the time, he decided, in 1952, to travel around Europe (Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Antwerp), and enrolled in the Koninklijke Akademia von Schoone, while making contact with the European avant-garde.
His work has been exhibited in Bilbao, Seville, Alicante, Madrid, Zaragoza, Bayonne, London, Paris, Prague, Mexico, etc., and his work is kept in important private collections and institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art of Bilbao, the Camón Aznar Museum of Zaragoza, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Madrid bought two paintings in 1970, etc.