José Caballero (11 June 1915 – 26 May 1991) was a Spanish

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

. He was one of the most varied artists (in technique, style and theme). His way of understanding painting during the surrounding the

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

showed little similarities during the period.

Career

At the end of the 1920s he met poet Adriano del Valle and in 1930,

Daniel Vázquez Díaz Daniel Vázquez Díaz (January 15, 1882 – March 17, 1969) was a Spanish painter. Biography Born in Nerva, Spain, Vázquez Díaz settled in Paris in 1918, where he found cubism to be the ideal form of expression. Unlike other artists such as ...

, when he was painting frescoes in La Rábida monastery. He arrived in Madrid in 1931, but maintained his hometown ties, where that year he held his first individual exhibition in the Mercantile Circle. In 1932, along with

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

and others, he produced an exhibition of scandalous drawings in the Popular Ateneo that lasted for only one day. In 1933 Lorca invited him to La Barraca, where he created sets of drawings. He met Alberto Sánchez,

Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...

Rafael Alberti Rafael Alberti Merello (16 December 1902 – 28 October 1999) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. He is considered one of the greatest literary figures of the so-called ''Silver Age'' of Spanish Literature, and he won numerou ...

Miguel Hernández Miguel Hernández Gilabert (30 October 1910 – 28 March 1942 ) was a 20th-century Spanish-language poet and playwright associated with the Generation of '27 and the Generation of '36 movements. Born and raised in a family of low resources, h ...

Maruja Mallo Maruja Mallo (born Ana María Gómez González; 5 January 1902 – 6 February 1995) was a Spanish surrealist painter. She is considered an artist of the Generation of 1927 within the Spanish avant-garde movement. Biography Mallo was the fourt ...

Joaquín Torres García Joaquín or Joaquin is a male given name, the Spanish version of Joachim. Given name * Joaquín (footballer, born 1956), Spanish football midfielder * Joaquín (footballer, born 1981), Spanish football winger * Joaquín (footballer, born 1982), ...

and

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and m ...

. The latter introduced him to

surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

, showing him, for example, the collages of

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism ...

. In 1935 Caballeros created three surrealist posters for his performance together with del Valle in the Ateneo of Sevilla and illustrated poems for Lorca and Neruda. He contributed to magazines such as ''Cruz y Raya'', ''Noreste'', ''Línea'', ''Caballo Verde para la poesía'', (Green Horse for Poetry) etc. Less known was his participation in the first Drawing Fair (1935) of the Iberian Artist Society. In 1937 he spent months at the battlefront producing drawings and maps. After the war he made surrealist illustrations filled with contents related to Catholicism in magazines such as ''

Vértice ''Vértice'' (Spanish: ''Vertex'') was a monthly Falangist magazine published in San Sebastián, Spain, between 1937 and 1946. Its subtitle was ''Revista nacional de la Falange''. From late 1937 it was changed to ''Revista nacional de Falange E ...

'' or ''Santo y Seña'' convinced by Dionisio Ridruejo. In 1945 he participated in the III Salón de los Once (Eleven's Hall). Five years later, he was invited to the XXV edition of the Biennale Exhibition of Venice and held his first major individual exhibition in Madrid, in the Clan gallery. However, neither of these tendencies continued, especially in the fifties, when he left the figurative arts and tried to unite geometric abstraction with the matter-like expressivity of informalism. The results varied but always represented his creative interests, who remained influential in the artistic environment of

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

until his death. He received Spain's National Award for Plastic Arts in 1984. José Caballero's paintings are showcased at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Madrid.Museo de Arte Contemporáneo

Saatchi Gallery The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the D ...

Official web site

References

External links

*
Spanish painters, biographies
1915 births 1991 deaths People from Huelva 20th-century Spanish painters 20th-century Spanish male artists Spanish male painters {{Spain-painter-stub