Laxeiro

"LAXEIRO"; JOSÉ OTERO ABELEDO (Lalín, Pontevedra, 1908 - Vigo, 1996).
Untitled, 1978.
Ink on paper.
Signed and dated in the upper left area.
Measurements: 22 x 17,5 cm; 49 x 44 cm (frame).
José Otero Abeledo 'Laxeiro' began his artistic training in Galicia and emigrated when he was young to Cuba, where he worked in various crafts related to drawing and glassmaking, while he began to approach the artistic world. After returning to Spain for health reasons, he settled in Lalín and alternated various jobs with the realization of portraits and drawings of popular types, also collaborating as an illustrator in publications such as Faro de Vigo and El Pueblo Gallego. In 1931 he obtained a scholarship to study in Madrid, where he attended the San Fernando Academy as a free student and came into contact with the intellectual and artistic circles of the time.
From the thirties he began an intense exhibition activity and, after the Civil War, he also worked as a teacher in Pontevedra. In 1951 he moved to Buenos Aires, where he lived for two decades and where he consolidated his international projection. On his definitive return to Spain in the seventies, Laxeiro was recognized as one of the fundamental figures of the Galician artistic renovation of the 20th century. His work, deeply linked to popular tradition and expressionism, received important distinctions, among them the Castelao Medal and the Gold Medal of the City Council of Vigo. He currently has his own museum in Vigo and is represented in important museums and collections in Spain and America.