Ramón Gaya y Pomés (10 October 1910 – 15 October 2005) was a Spanish painter and writer.

Biography

Ramón Gaya was born in

Murcia Murcia ( , , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the Ranked lists of Spanish municipalities#By population, seventh largest city i ...

to Catalan parents Salvador Gaya and Josefa Pomés. His parents had moved to Murcia so Salvador could better engage in his profession of lithography. Ramón's father had some painter friends, Pedro Flores and Luis Garay, Christopher Hall and Darsie Japp, who helped instruct Gaya in art in his early years. He left school early to pursue the profession of painter. Already at the age of 17, Gaya had his first major exhibition in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He became involved with Frederico Garcia Lorca's theatre drawing sets and was head of the painting department in the ''Las Missiones Pedagógicas''. He was the youngest part of the group named ''la Generación del 27.'' His later works were influenced by the old masters such as Velázquez,

Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...

as well as

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

. In June 1936 he married Fé Sanz in Madrid. At the start of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

he joined the Alliance of Anti-Fascist Intellectuals. His wife Fé Sanz was killed in the bombing of Figueres, during the last days of the war, where his daughter, Alicia survived. With the army he crossed the Pyrenees and spent sixteen days in the concentration camp of Saint-Cyprien. After the war, he went into exile to France, where he was separated from his daughter, and, later to Mexico. In 1956 he returned to Europe and settled down in Rome, Italy. In the 1970s he returned to Spain, Madrid. His work can be seen at ''Caffé Greco'', in Rome. In 1990, in his hometown of

, in the south-east of Spain, the Ramón Gaya de Murcia Museum was set up, for which the painter gave over a hundred of his works. Gaya was also active as a writer, poet, and art critic. In the course of his 95-year life he received numerous awards, including the National Award for Plastic Arts in 1996 and the in 2002. In 1999, he received the honorary doctorate from the

University of Murcia The University of Murcia () is the primary institute of higher education in Murcia, Spain. With a student population of approximately 38,000, it is the largest university in the Region of Murcia. Founded in 1272 AD, the University of Murcia is ...

. Gaya was considered one of the best painters of Spain of this century and belongs to the last surviving representatives of the generation of 1927.(es
La verdad, Obituary
/ref> Image:Ramón Gaya - Los baños de Tiber (1971).jpg, ''The Tiber baths'' (1971)

References

1910 births 2005 deaths Murcian writers Spanish artists {{Europe-artist-stub