Manuel Gil Perez

MANUEL GIL PÉREZ (Valencia, 1925-1957)
Untitled.
Collage on paper.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 14 x 21,5 cm; 45 x 54 cm (frame).
This artist was consolidated as one of the key figures of the Valencian pictorial panorama of the fifties, playing a decisive role in the processes of artistic renovation of the moment. He initially trained at the Escuela de Artes Aplicadas y Oficios Artísticos de Valencia (1941-1942) and completed his studies at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Carlos (1943-1950), where he acquired a solid technical base that he would soon put at the service of a critical and experimental attitude.
With an enterprising and non-conformist spirit, he distanced himself from the dominant academicism of post-war Valencia and actively participated in the articulation of new collective platforms of creation. His involvement was decisive in the founding and development of Grupo Z (1947-1950) and, later, of Grupo Parpalló (1956-1961), fundamental nuclei for the opening of Valencian art to the languages of modernity. He also collaborated closely with the Mediterranean Artistic Movement (1956-1961), contributing to the projection of a plastic sensibility linked to formal research and dialogue with international artistic contexts.