José María Sicilia (born 1954) is a Spanish
abstractionist painter who currently resides 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 ...
and
Sóller
Sóller () is a town and municipality near the north west coast of the Balearic Island of Mallorca, Spain, 3 km inland from Port de Sóller, in a large, bowl-shaped valley that also includes the village of Fornalutx and the hamlets of Biniara ...
.
Background
Sicilia was born in Madrid and grew up in
Francoist Spain
Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...
. He spent his holidays in the monastery town of
Escorial
El Escorial, or the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (), or (), is a historical residence of the king of Spain located in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, up the valley ( road distance) from the town of El Escorial and about n ...
near the
Sierra de Guadarrama
The Sierra de Guadarrama (Guadarrama Mountains) is a mountain range forming the main eastern section of the Sistema Central, the system of mountain ranges along the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. It is in Spain, between the systems Sierra de ...
. In 1975 he joined the
School of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid.
In 1980 he moved to Paris, where he first exhibited, and in 1985 he relocated to New York, where he became a close friend of the composer
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...
.
[ He is renowned for his unusual techniques such as the use of wax with lithography.]Queens Museum of Art
The Queens Museum (formerly the Queens Museum of Art) is an art museum and educational center at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. Established in 1972, the museum includes the '' Panorama of the City of Ne ...
, ''The New York Times'' noted "Jose Maria Sicilia's paintings are... refined and very seductive. His waxen surfaces create delicate plays of light and shadow. Objects appear like auras or afterimages through the translucent veneers."Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
(1986), Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Gran Canaria and Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum, Cairo.[ He also held multiple exhibitions in Japan, first in 1988, based in galleries in ]Nagasaki
, officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...
, Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
, Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
and most recently in Fukushima, in the wake of the 2011 tsunami and earthquake in the area.
Collections
Sicilia's work can be found in the following collections:[
* CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bourdeaux
* Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla
* ]Cincinnati Art Museum
The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ...
, Cincinnati, Ohio
* Colección Banco de España, Madrid [
* Colección Arte Contemporáneo Fundación La Caixa, Barcelona
* Colección Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid
* Colección Fundesco, Madrid
* Collecció Testimoni de La Caixa, Barcelona ]Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, and includes over 200,000 works of arc ...
[
]
References
Further reading
"La deconstrucción poética de las vanguardias abstractas en la pintura de José María Sicilia (1985-1987)"
Kristian Leahy Brajnovic, issue 18-19 (2005) ''Inicio''
External links
"José Maria Sicilia"
''La Pensée du Midi'' 2003/3-1 (issue 11)
Biography and work
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sicilia, Jose Maria
Living people
1954 births
Spanish painters
Abstract expressionist artists
Painters from Madrid
Spanish contemporary artists