Christ of Vera

CRISTINO DE VERA (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1931- 2026).
Untitled, 1957
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the upper right area. Signed and dated on the back.
Measurements: 100 x 73 cm; 124 x 96 cm (frame).
This work is part of an early stage of his career, when the artist was still defining the austere and deeply spiritual language influenced by the Spanish pictorial tradition, especially by the painting of Solana. In this painting, the human figure appears isolated, frontal and almost hieratic, with a marked formal simplification and a reduced palette of earthy and black tones. Something that will be characteristic of this period, as can be seen in other portraits such as Woman with a Book from 1957, or Woman with a Candelabra, dated a year later. The character, with a schematic anatomy and restrained gesture, holds an ambiguous object that reinforces the atmosphere of seclusion and mystery. The rough texture and the matte treatment of the surface give a sense of wear and tear and timelessness, as if the image belonged to a suspended time. This economy of means and the tension between the figurative and the symbolic already anticipate the constants of his mature work.
Cristino de Vera was trained at the School of Arts and Crafts of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1946), where his main teacher was Mariano de Cossío. He will extend his training in the drawing classes of the sculptor Alfonso Reyes, while working with his father, a representative of pharmaceutical products. In 1951 he went to Madrid to study with Daniel Vázquez Díaz, and there he frequented the Prado Museum, the Casón del Buen Retiro and the Círculo de Bellas Artes, as well as attending classes at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts. A year later he made his debut in a group exhibition held at the Xagra gallery in Madrid, and finally in 1954 came the time of his first solo exhibition, held at the Estilo gallery in the same city. Since then he continues to take part in group exhibitions, and holds solo exhibitions in various galleries in Madrid, as well as in the Ateneo and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid. Also, in 1958 he took part in the Biennial of Alexandria, and in 1959 he participated in a collective exhibition held in Lisbon. In 1960 he was awarded the Juan March prize, and from then on his successes continued. In 1961 he participates in the II Biennial of Paris, and continues holding personal exhibitions in important galleries. He travels around Europe on a scholarship, and in 1962 he represents Spain at the Venice Biennial. In 1964 he participates in the New York Fair, and in 1966 he makes his first work of editorial illustration. In the following decade his work continues to be shown all over Spain, especially in Madrid, and also in Paris, London, Belgium and Warsaw, thus consolidating his international career. Also in this decade he began a series of trips around the world that would take him from Russia to Hong Kong, passing through North Africa and also crossing the ocean to reach North America. More recently, Cristino de Vera has been distinguished with awards such as the Gold Medal for Fine Arts (2002), and has received important tributes. He is currently represented in the Foundation that bears his name in La Laguna (Tenerife), as well as in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and in other outstanding collections, both public and private.