Valencia’s Favourite Artists

 

Joaquin Sorolla  y Bastida
Painter

Valencia 1863 – Madrid 1923

The painter of vibrant sunshine without equal

Valencia’s most famous artist studied in Madrid and Paris and then in Rome, alongside fellow Valenciano Josep Benlliure

After his training,

Sorolla settled in his beloved Valencia. His open air paintings of the fishermen, the oxen pulling the fishing boats to shore and the sea bathers in early 1900’s Cabanyal and Levante are some of the most important and evocative studies of the area

They also represent one of Sorolla favourite themes, key in his development as a painter and  are amongst some of his most famous  works. Visit Valencia’s Museo of Belles Artes to see a gallery dedicated to Sorolla’s life and paintings.

 

 

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Augusti Centelles
War Photographer

Valencia  1909 – Barcelona 1985

‘I call myself an image hunter’

Centelles is known as the Spanish Robert Capa and is a pioneer of photo-journalism , a staunch Republican who is most famous for his images of the Spanish Civil War.

Centelles was apprenticed in the 1920’s to the Spanish cinemamatic pioneer Ramon Banos. By 1934 he was an independent photographer for the Spanish press and his images were often used in  pre-Republican propaganda stories.

He reported the conquest of Teruel, one of the war’s fiercest battles, but by 1939  had fled to France  taking his most important negatives with him.  Franco had seized all those left behind.

In France Centelles was  imprisoned in  the Bram P.O.W camp , where he set up a small darkroom and  continued to

photograph the camp and its prisoners, leading to some of his most important work.

On his eventual return to Spain in 1946 he left all his remaining negatives  in the attic  of a house in Carcassonne, realizing that they might be seized again by the Francoist authorities, implicating his fellow  Republicans.

In 1976 , 30 years after leaving France and  after the death of Franco, he returned to Caracassone to retrieve his negatives which  now form part of the photographic collection  at the Salamanca Centre of History  .

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Mariano Benlliure
Sculptor

Valencia 1862 – 1947

The younger brother of painter Jose is widely considered to be the last great Spanish realistic sculptor. Born in Valencia’s Maritim district,  Mariano’s  naturalist detailed approach tinged with  the spontaneity of Impressionism, made him very popular throughout  Spain.

His work progressed from his early bullfighting figurines to the more grandiose public monuments 

of prominent Spaniards including Goya and  Velazquez, writer Trueba and King Alphonso XII.

Mariano Benlliure was depicted on the  500 peseta note from the 1950’s and

his works are held in all the major galleries across Spain, as well as in the Museum of Jose Benlliure in Valencia.

 

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Eduardo Munoz Bachs
Graphic Designer – Cuban Poster artist

Valencia 1937 – Havana 2001

Though born in Valencia , Bachs and his family moved to France when he was two years old and then to  Cuba  in 1941, probably fleeing their native country because of the Spanish Civil war.

Even though Bachs was a gifted artist, he had no formal training or art education .  In 1960 he made the first poster for the Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC) , founded shortly after the Cuban Revolution to produce and promote Cuban cinema .

Over the next 40 years  Bachs  produced over 2000 film posters. Today he is  seen as the greatest Cuban poster designer of all time

 

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Rafael Guastavino
Architect and Builder

 Valencia 1842 – North Carolina 1908

The greatest ever architect you have never heard of.

Rafael Guastavino studied in Barcelona  and  was a contemporary of Antoni Gaudi.  He is most famed for inventing the Guastavino Arch , inspired by the tiling of his home town  of Valencia . This self -supporting vaulted arched ceiling was held together by interlocking tiles  and has been used in the construction of over 1000 buildings around the world  including 300 buildings in New York.

Many are still standing,  including The  Carnegie Hall , The  Oyster  Bar in Grand Central Station, the  Old City Hall Subway station and the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art – enriched by the splendid Arch  and the work of this talented Valenciano.

 

 

 

 

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Escif
Street Artist – Muralist

Valencia – 1983

‘I’m not interested in being told that what I do is pretty, not even that I do it well. I’d rather provoke some kind of thinking in the spectator. I’m not looking for decorative paintings, I try to wake up viewers’ minds.’

Spanish muralist and street artist Escif hails from Valencia,  but is active globally with recent works popping up throughout Canada, Italy, and France.

His use of subdued colours and simple lines helps the artist communicate his humorous and direct commentary on capitalism, politics, the economy and other sensitive social issues.

Escif was educated in fine arts and conceptual workshops inspired by comics books , film and classic painters but most of all by daily life

He starting painting his hometown streets in the late 1990’s as part of the XLF crew , who  include Dieh, Cesp, and Sr Marmota. More recently he has collaborated with the Argentine artist Hyuro.  From his satirical and politically charged small works  to his huge murals spanning  entire buildings he is the most famous street artist to have come out of Valencia.

 

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Vicente Blasco Ibanez
Novelist – Journalist – Politician

Valencia  1867 – Menton 1928

Blasco Ibanez , Valencia’s most famous writer, studied law  but never practised it. As a militant Republican he founded the controversial newspaper El Pueblo ( The People ) and was imprisoned  over 30 times for his political beliefs .

He is most renowned as a realist writer, who produced over 30 books  including  Flor De Mayo,  a love story set in  El Cabanyal which gives moving, evocative descriptions of the fishermans’ quarter .

Five of his novels were made into films. Of these The Temptress and  The Torrent, filmed at  Hollywood MGM studios were also the first movies to star  Greta Garbo.  Rita Hayworth  and Rudolf Valentino also featured in films made from his works.

The former home of this rightly revered author in  Malvarossa is now a Museum, dedicated to Ibanez and his work.

 

 

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Santiago Calatrava
Architect – Sculptor – Painter

Valencia  1951

Calatrava is one of the world’s most famous architects, whose Neofuturistic buildings have won numerous awards.

He studied in Valencia and Zurich and his spectacular work has been used for bridges and transport hubs.

The extraordinary City of Arts and Sciences and the dazzling Alameda Metro Station are his most important  landmarks in Valencia.

Worldwide,  the new World Trade Center Transportation Hub, the Bahnhof Station, in Zurich and the Samuel Beckett Bridge, Dublin are also key Calatrava creations.

Calatrava’s acclaimed ceramics and sculptures are often the first steps toward the realization of his architecture.

 

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Josep Renau Berenguer
Photomontage – Muralist – Poster Art

Valencia 1907 – Berlin 1982

‘I am not a Communist painter , Just a Communist who paints’

After studying fine art in Valencia , Josep won his first poster competition aged 18. With the onset of the Spanish Civil War he began designing posters  in support of the Republicans as well as posters for Tourism Valencia including  the famous  Las Arenas/ Cabanyal Art Deco poster.

In the late 1930’s , Renau helped design the Spanish Pavilion in Paris and later commissioned  Picasso  to paint a mural, which eventually became Guernica.

Renau fled Spain for Mexico and made his living from designing film posters.  His most famous works are a collection of montages known as The American Way of Life  – forerunners to the 1960’s American pop art culture.

 

 

 

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Jose Benlliure y Gil
Painter

Valencia 1858 – 1937

Born in Cabanyal- Canyamelar,  Benlliure  comes from a family of artists. His two brothers were the sculptures Mariano  and  painter Juan Antonio.

Known as the favourite son of the city, he began painting at the age of 10, often selling his works to pay for household  expenses. Formally educated in Valencia and Rome, his works  combined  family and religion with local customs.  By the age of sixteen he had portrayed the  Duke of Aosta and King Amadeus of Savoy,

Benlliure, became  the director of the Museum of Belles Artes in Valencia and has a street named after him in El Cabanyal.

The Prado in Madrid  and the Victoria and Albert Museum in  London hold his  works in their collections and today his house in Valencia is a Museum which also shows Sorolla’s paintings.