José Vela Zanetti

JOSÉ VELA ZANETTI (Milagros, Burgos, 1913 - Burgos, 1999).
"Still life".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 80 x 100 cm; 100 x 118 cm (frame).

In this composition, Vela Zanetti approaches the still life genre with a pictorial sensibility that combines tradition and modernity. The elements, with a clear Mediterranean reference, evoke the simplicity of everyday life and the symbolic richness of basic foods.

The painting stands out for its loose and impastoed brushstrokes, where color acquires an essential protagonism. The hallmarks between the warm tones of the ceramics and the bread, and the violet and golden hues of the grapes, generate a vibrant chromatic harmony that recalls the tradition of the Spanish still life reinterpreted from a contemporary point of view. The background, treated with a dense and gestural pictorial matter, brings depth and dynamism to the composition.

Vela Zanetti developed an intense artistic activity in Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico and the United States. In 1951 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship, thanks to which he painted the large mural "Man's Struggle for Lasting Peace" for the United Nations headquarters in New York, considered his most important work. Author of numerous murals in Spain and America, he was a member of the Academy of San Fernando and Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Burgos. His work is preserved in collections and institutions in Europe and America, and has been the subject of major retrospective exhibitions.