Painting - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Painting – 82/398

Zumeta, José Luis

Usurbil, Gipuzkoa, 19/04/1939

Oil on canvas

180 x 259.8 cm

Zumeta (bottom centre)

1977

Last quarter of the 20th century

82/398

Acquired in 1978

  • The radically abstract paintings soon gave way to more complex and intense descriptions in which obscure conflicts could be glimpsed, and which transmitted, through everbrilliant colour, a collective drama that could really only be the one affecting the country in the last years of the Franco regime. Painting from around 1971 is an example of the first part of this cycle, which culminated in a less aggressive abstraction that seemed to recapitulate some of the ideas of the European art informel movement, and move towards a reflexive synthesis of matter, gesture and Tachisme. This is perfectly clear in Painting from 1977, a work that displays recognisable historical references from European painting in the post-world war period. (Javier Viar)

Selected bibliography

  • Bengoechea, Javier de. Catálogo de arte moderno y contemporáneo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya, 1980. p. 133. (Con el título Pintura).
  • Zumeta : retrospectiva = atzera begira [Cat. exp.]. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Eusko Jaurlaritza, Kultura eta Turismo Saila = Gobierno Vasco, Dpto. de Cultura y Turismo, 1989. p. 114
  • Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. pp. 154-155.
  • Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. pp. 154-155.
  • Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. pp. 154-155, n° cat. 85c.
  • Viar, Javier. Historia del arte vasco : de la Guerra Civil a nuestros días, 1936-2016. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2017. pp. 206-207, il.
  • Después del 68 : arte y prácticas artísticas en el País Vasco, 1968-2018 [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2018. pp. 65, 164, il.