Ricardo Sanz, 1957 | Figurative painter

Ricardo Sanz is a San Sebastián painter. His work is contemporary figurative style.

His artistic vocation was forged through his grandfather, owner of the Art Gallery La Perfecta in which he met the great artists of the painting: Sorolla, Zuloaga, Vázquez Diaz, etc.

At fourteen he began his training as a painter with José Camps, while he continued his studies until graduating in History from the University of Deusto and Art History in Madrid.

In Paris and Italy continues his apprenticeship with prominent painters of the time.

Alda Merini | Alla tua salute, amore mio!

Sono folle di te, amore

che vieni a rintracciare

nei miei trascorsi

questi giocattoli rotti delle mie parole.

Ti faccio dono di tutto

se vuoi,

Pablo Picasso |The Embrace, 1900

Citazioni da Picasso: "Dipingere non è un'operazione estetica.."

• "Quando uno inizia un ritratto e cerca per successive eliminazioni di trovare la forma pura... si finisce inevitabilmente con un uovo.."

• "La pittura non è fatta per decorare gli appartamenti. È uno strumento di guerra offensiva e difensiva contro il nemico".

Pablo Picasso | Periodi artistici

Periodo blu

Partendo dal 1901 lo stile pittorico di Picasso incominciò a presentare tratti originali e nuove soluzioni artistiche; in quell'anno, infatti, ha inizio il cosiddetto «periodo blu», che si protrae sino alla primavera del 1904.

Questa fase artistica picassiana, come già accennato, scaturì in seguito alla morte suicida dell'amico Carlos Casagemas, come affermato dallo stesso maestro andaluso:

«Quando mi resi conto che Casagemas era morto, incominciai a dipingere in blu» - Pablo Picasso

Federico García Lorca | Indovinello della chitarra / Riddle of the guitar

Nel rotondo

crocevia

sei fanciulle

ballano.

Tre d’argento

e tre di carne.

Federico Beltrán Masses | Tres Para Uno / Three for one, 1934

Guernica, 1937 by Pablo Picasso

During the war, Picasso was visited by Nazi Ambassador Otto Abetz in his Parisian studio.

The latter came upon a picture of Guernica, which had been sent to New York by the painter as soon as the Exhibition was over.

He asked: "Did you really do this?" to which Picasso answered: "No, You did".

Guernica is Pablo Picasso's monumental 1937 oil painting that stands as one of the most powerful and famous anti-war statements in history.

Painted in response to the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, the artwork captures the universal suffering and brutality of conflict through its chaotic imagery and stark monochrome palette.

Alfredo Roldán, 1965 | Figurative painter

Alfredo Roldàn was born in Madrid. At the age of 22, having had no formal artistic training, he started drawing professionally, selling his work in street markets, at the same time presenting his work at major competitions, of which he won several.

It was on winning the award granted by the City Council of Madrid in 1994 that he was discovered by a major gallery.

His winning painting now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art, Madrid.

Remedios Varo | Surrealist painter

Remedios Varo’s paintings combine Surrealist influences with a distinctive style that evokes mystical or eerie adventures.

She had a life philosophy of non-conformity and a personal story marked by dislocation and tumult.

During her childhood in Spain, Varo was influenced by her engineer father, who taught her to draw, and her strict Catholic schooling, against which she rebelled.

Pablo Picasso | La nascita del Cubismo

Dopo un'ulteriore vacanza a Horta de Ebro nell'estate 1909, Picasso una volta ritornato a Parigi decise di allontanarsi dal pur pittoresco squallore di Montmartre e di affittare - insieme con Fernarde e il loro gatto siamese - un appartamento al numero 11 di boulevard de Clichy, nei pressi di place Pigalle.

Qui si dedicò con assoluta e piena dedizione ai propri quadri cubisti, dando vita a opere quali La femme assise (1909) e Ragazza con mandolino (1910) ed i ritratti effigianti Georges Braque (1909), Ambroise Vollard (1909-10) e Daniel-Heinrich Kahnweiler (1910).

Con queste tele Picasso, meditando sulla lezione di Cézanne, intendeva studiare il rapporto tra forma e spazio mediante il trattamento schematico dei piani e la scomposizione dei volumi: da queste premesse prese forma una fase che i critici d'arte definiranno «cubismo analitico».

Pablo Picasso: "La pittura è solo un altro modo di tenere un diario"

• "I computer sono inutili. Ti sanno dare solo risposte".

• "Computers Are useless. They Can Only Give You Answers".

• "La pittura è solo un altro modo di tenere un diario".

• "Painting is just another way of keeping a diary".

Oscar Alvarez Pardo, 1967 | Abstract Figurative painter

Spanish self-taught artist and painter Oscar Álvarez Pardo was born, living and working in Zaragoza, Spain.

"In my watercolors, after years of dedication and learning to master this so difficult medium, there is an initial stage devoted to a hard work essentially realistic... mainly portraits and seascapes become a constant in my work.

In what could be a second stage I begin to introducer the fantasy in my paintings, realistic work alternating with others of fantástco court".

Picasso Quotes: "Love is the greatest refreshment in life..."

• "Non giudicare sbagliato ciò che non conosci, prendi l'occasione per comprendere!"

• "Do not judge wrong what you don't know, take the opportunity to understand"!

Eugenio Lucas Villaamil | Belle Époque painter

Eugenio Lucas Villaamil (Madrid, 1858-1918) also known as Lucas "the younger", was born to the painter Eugenio Lucas Velázquez and Francisca Villaamil.

Until only a few years ago the information we had about his life was almost as vague as what is known about his work.

After initially training in his father’s studio as a boy, he furthered his studies at the Special School of Painting in Madrid and took part in the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts three times.

Bathers, 1918 by Pablo Picasso

Starting from 1918, Picasso spent all his summers at the beach, first at Biarritz, then on the Cote d'Azur or in Dinard.

These journeys inspired him to create a series of works on the theme of bathers.

This painting was created in 1918 at Biarritz and the first one of the series.

It has been a long tradition in art history for artists to depict the female figure with the sea scene, extending from The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli to The Large Bathers of Paul Cezanne.

Salvador Dali Quotes: "Drawing is the honesty of the art"!

• "I believe that the moment is near when by a procedure of active paranoiac thought, it will be possible to systematize confusion and contribute to the total discrediting of the world of reality".

• "If you understand a painting beforehand, you might as well not paint it".

• "We are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images. Abstract art will have been good for one thing: to restore its exact virginity to figurative art".

Georges Corominas, 1945

Son of a Spanish painter, Georges Corominas, after studying at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts d'Alger, returned to France in 1962, where his paintings were quickly noticed.

Corominas is an artist who, while in search of the deep soul of the world, presents his "joie de vivre" as well as his emotions, passions and fascination for the perfect beauty to life, all in a bright enchantment.

Laureate of prestigious price, result of participation in the famous national and international exhibitions, his painting is pointed out by the collectors.

Salvador Dali: "Adoro i miei nemici quando sono intelligenti"

"Ho sfondato il muro della spudoratezza con una disciplina da caserma" - confidava Salvador Dalí in una intervista del 1961 alla giornalista e scrittrice italiana Oriana Fallaci (1929-2006), mentre, nelle successive riflessioni tuonava contro gli pseudo moralisti: "Non sono io il pagliaccio ma lo è questa società mostruosamente cinica e così ingenuamente incosciente che gioca a fingere di essere seria per meglio nascondere la propria follia".

Francisco Sanchis Cortés, 1969 | Impressionist figurative painter

The Valencian painter Francisco Sanchis Cortés has an enviable genetic line that leads him in pursuit of the fine arts.

A line that genetically connects the best manners of Hispanic roots, heir to the demonic fictional painting of the Pinazo, Emilio Sala, Mongrell and Sorolla.

A narrative line in which he tells a lot about the story of the matter and his ability to move.

A line in which knowing how to paint is essentially valued, precisely to characterize the motifs, with humanity in the gestures of the characters and above all with an outcrop of a romantic character.

Iban Barrenetxea, 1973 | Fantasy writer / illustrator

Iban Barrenetxea is a Spanish graphic designer and writer.

Iban lets his imagination run lose in his work, and creates hilarious and fantastic scenes overflowing with unique details and characters.

Iban Barrenetxea is one of the most internationally-acclaimed illustrators and authors in the field of children’s and young adult literature in Spain.

He has received numerous awards and has exhibited in Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal and Japan and his books have been translated into several languages: French, Russian, Japanese and Korean.

Kike Meana, 1969 | Figurative painter

The works of Spanish painter Kike Meana demonstrate a rigorous interest in drawing.

Meana confronts us with the indoctrinated mass that this society can be and in which we all, in some way, see a reflection of ourselves.

His fantastic urban landscapes, mythical in their atmosphere, light, and colour, as well as the immense panoramic views of Havana, London and Madrid overwhelm the viewer.

Meanwhile, his more intimate pictorial approaches of these big cities show us their daily life and their hidden corners with an equal strength and beauty, even in the hard and intense series´ Metamorphosis and Matadero.