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RAFAEL ZABALETA FUENTES (Quesada, Jaén, 1907 - 1960). "Female portrait". Ink and pencil drawing on paper. Signed in the lower right corner. Provenance: Biosca Gallery (1975). The paper has stains. Measurements: 33 x 24 cm; 53 x 44 cm (frame). Rafael Zabaleta studied in the Superior School of Fine Arts of San Fernando, and in 1932 he participates for the first time in a collective exhibition, the one of the students of this school. Three years later he made his first trip to Paris, where he met and studied the works of the masters of contemporary painting. In 1937 he was appointed delegate of the National Artistic Treasury. At the end of the war he was imprisoned, after which he settled in Madrid in 1940. Two years later he held his first solo exhibition at the Biosca Gallery in the capital, after being rejected at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. However, the following year he took part in the First Salón de los Once and became a member of the Academia Breve de Crítica de Arte de Eugenio d'Ors, taking part in most of its Salones de los Once and anthological exhibitions. In 1945 he takes part in the collective exhibition "Floreros y bodegones" held at the National Museum of Modern Art, while he continues to exhibit individually and collectively in galleries in Madrid. In 1947 he holds his first personal exhibition in Barcelona, at the Argos Gallery, and his first monograph is published. Two years later he travels again to Paris, coming into contact with Picasso, Óscar Domínguez, M. Ángeles Ortiz and others. The year of his definitive consecration will be 1951, when he holds a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid. In 1955 he obtained the UNESCO Prize at the Hispano-American Biennial in Barcelona. That same year he participates in the Biennial of the Mediterranean held in Alexandria, and holds a solo exhibition in Bilbao. During his last years Zabaleta will be an artist already fully recognized, invited to the most important exhibitions and salons both in Spain and in foreign cities of the importance of Paris. The most important collection of his work is in the Zabaleta Museum of Quesada, although it is also present in the most prestigious museums of the world, in cities such as Buenos Aires, New York or Tokyo.

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RAFAEL ZABALETA FUENTES (Quesada, Jaén, 1907 - 1960).

Estimate 1 200 - 1 500 EUR
Starting price 700 EUR

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RAFAEL ZABALETA FUENTES (Quesada, Jaén, 1907 - 1960). "Camposanto", ca. 1953. Oil on canvas adhered to board. Signed in the lower right corner. Bibliography: - GUZMAN, M., Cataloging, number 322, page 529. - GUZMÁN, M., The painting of R. Zabaleta, page 391. Measurements: 34 x 40 cm; 50.5 x 58.5 cm (frame). Rafael Zabaleta was an extremely versatile painter, capable of developing in parallel a post-cubist work in which the image is fragmented evoking colorful stained glass windows and, at the same time, an apparently traditional landscape painting, but in which the avant-garde legacy can be appreciated. To this second group belongs the landscape of the Castilian countryside that we are dealing with. The brushstrokes here are protean: they metamorphose into circles to represent the iridescent tops of the trees, in broken strokes across the fields... The influence of Cézanne also beats in the essentialist and synthetic reduction of nature. "In the foreground, he depicts an almost flat field, covered with grass, enclosed by a wall and with its access gate. Some tiny crosses can be seen dotted, and, immediately behind, the terrain begins to rise until it ends in the fiery mountains that barely allow the sky to be seen. He interprets the mosaic of plots combining the most varied greens with Venetian reds, placing the dark, very fallen, in the last term. The inclination of the planes in the farmland and the orographic features can be distinguished with precision. A sketch with great expressive force, with a clear Fauvist tendency, in which the simplicity and monumental size of its forms stand out", it is stated in the artist's Catalogue Raisonné. Born into a wealthy family, Rafael Zabaleta showed his love for painting since he was a child, so after finishing his high school studies he moved to Madrid and entered, in 1925, the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. There he will have as teachers Lainez Alcalá, Cecilio Pla and Ignacio Pinazo, and in 1932 he participates for the first time in a group exhibition, that of the students of San Fernando. One of his works, entitled "La pareja," was selected to illustrate the critical review that Manuel Abril made for the magazine "Blanco y Negro". Three years later Zabaleta made his first trip to Paris, where he met and studied the works of the masters of contemporary painting. In 1937 he was appointed delegate of the National Artistic Treasure, and also around this time he began a series of drawings on the Civil War. At the end of the war he was denounced, and briefly spent time in the concentration camp of Higuera de Calatrava and in Jaen prison, where his two albums of drawings made during the war were seized. Finally freed, in 1940 he settles in Madrid, where he attends the gatherings at the Café Gijón and draws and paints at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. Two years later he visits Aurelio Biosca, director of the Madrid gallery Biosca, with a letter of introduction from the sculptor Manolo Hugué. There he held his first individual exhibition that same year, after being rejected at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. However, the following year he participates in the First Salón de los Once and becomes a member of the Academia Breve de Crítica de Arte de Eugenio d'Ors, to which Biosca also belonged. Zabaleta will take part in most of his Salones de los Once and anthological exhibitions. In 1945 Zabaleta participates in the group show "Floreros y bodegones" held at the National Museum of Modern Art, while he continues to exhibit individually and collectively in galleries in the capital. In 1947 he holds his first personal exhibition in Barcelona, at the Argos Gallery, and his first monograph is published. Two years later he travels again to Paris, coming into contact with Picasso, Óscar Domínguez, M. Ángeles Ortiz and others. The year of his definitive consecration will be 1951, when he holds a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid. In 1955 he obtained the UNESCO Prize at the Hispano-American Biennial in Barcelona. That same year he participates in the Biennial of the Mediterranean held in Alexandria, and holds a solo exhibition in Bilbao. During his last years Zabaleta will be an artist already fully recognized, invited to the most important exhibitions and salons both in Spain and in foreign cities of the importance of Paris.