Ginés Parra

GINÉS PARRA (Zurgena, Almería, 1896 - Paris, 1960)
"Man with butterfly", ca. 1930.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Provenance: Private collection, France.
Measurements: 75 x 62 cm.

"Man with butterfly" combines a naive tone with an intense expressive freedom. The figure, of deliberately simplified anatomy and accentuated contours, is cut out on a vibrant blue background, worked with loose and material brushstrokes. The contrast between the light body, the green pants and the blue space generates an image of strong chromatic presence, close to the modern sensibilities of the interwar period.

The butterfly introduces a poetic and symbolic element, reinforcing the imaginative character of the composition. More than a conventional narrative scene, the work seems to construct a moment of astonishment or contemplation, in which the character's gesture and the presence of the insect contribute a playful and enigmatic dimension.

Because of its direct language, its intense chromatism and its free execution, the painting is part of a modern figuration with a personal accent, where primitivism, naivety and expressionist echoes coexist.

Ginés Parra trained between New York and Paris, where he settled around 1920 in Montparnasse and studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. In the French capital he came into contact with artists such as Picasso, Julio González and Manuel Ángeles Ortiz, participating in the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Indépendants and the Society of French Artists.

In 1922 he exhibited at the Du Taureau Gallery in Paris, and his work "Leda and the Swan", presented at the Salon des Indépendants, was acquired by a Boston gallery. Between the thirties and forties he consolidated his prestige as a member of the New School of Paris, subsequently exhibiting in Europe and America. In 1959 he showed his work with Picasso at the Trouche Gallery, and shortly before his death the Salon des Indépendants dedicated an anthology to him.

He is represented in institutions such as the Narodni Muzeum in Prague, the Moravská Galerie in Brno, the Museums of Fine Arts in Boston and Havana, the Museo de Arte de São Paulo, the Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid and ARTIUM in Vitoria, among others.