Guerrero is, along with Esteban Vicente (1903-2001), one of Spain’s most internationally recognised artists, and both were members of the US school of
This contemporary painting movement emerged within the field of abstraction in the 1940s in the United States, from where it spread worldwide. Rooted in similar premises and postulates as Surrealism, the Abstract Expressionist artists regarded the act of painting as a spontaneous and unconscious activity, a dynamic bodily action divested of any kind of prior planning. The works belonging to this movement are defined by the use of pure, vibrant primary colours that convey a profound sense of freedom. The movement’s main pioneers were, among others, Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) and Hans Hoffman (1880-1966). Leading Spanish exponents of the movement are Esteban Vicente (1903-2001) and José Guerrero (1914-1991), who lived for some time in New York City, where they were in first-hand contact with the many artistic innovations taking place there around that time.
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After his training in Madrid and his time in Paris and Rome, where he was to meet his future wife, Roxanne Pollock, in 1949 Guerrero moved to New York where the
This contemporary painting movement emerged within the field of abstraction in the 1940s in the United States, from where it spread worldwide. Rooted in similar premises and postulates as Surrealism, the Abstract Expressionist artists regarded the act of painting as a spontaneous and unconscious activity, a dynamic bodily action divested of any kind of prior planning. The works belonging to this movement are defined by the use of pure, vibrant primary colours that convey a profound sense of freedom. The movement’s main pioneers were, among others, Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) and Hans Hoffman (1880-1966). Leading Spanish exponents of the movement are Esteban Vicente (1903-2001) and José Guerrero (1914-1991), who lived for some time in New York City, where they were in first-hand contact with the many artistic innovations taking place there around that time.
movement was beginning to come together. Guerrero joined the group, and made a name for himself within what was known as
a style of abstract painting associated with Abstract Expressionism in which artists work with large fields of colour, endowing their paintings with a mystical aura. Practitioners of colour field painting include Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Clyfford Still.
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In the sixties he returned to Spain, where the scene was ripe to continue experimenting with his vibrant colour painting. His artistic process focused on a study of painting itself, through which he mirrored his own personal experience in the form of colour. As he said in 1988, “colour expands, it never stops.”
These prints, most of which are belonging to the suite of works called
New York-Madrid, were made between 1984 and 1985, a time when the artist was still highly active.
The suite is made of ten prints made using
an indirect techniqueof chalcographic engraving. The metal plate is first covered with a protective varnish, on which the engraver draws with an etching needle, ensuring that it touches the surface of the metal plate without producing any furrows. Once the drawing has been made on the varnished surface, the plate is submerged in a diluted acid bath which acts on the exposed metal parts from which the varnish has been removed by the etching needle. Once the lines have been etched, and the plate is taken out of the acid and the remaining varnish removed using a soft cloth and alcohol, it is ready to be inked up and pressed.
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An indirect engraving technique to create areas with different tones. It is generally used in combination with other techniques like etching or
An engraving technique consisting of drawing the image directly on an untreated plate using a sharp tool, like a diamond point or metal needle, to create little incisions that produce grooves throwing up rough edges or burrs. Depending on the amount of pressure applied, more or less material is raised, which influences the intensity and depth of the line to be printed. Unlike other methods, such as the burin or etching, which produce more precise lines, drypoint is characterized by offering artists great expressive potential thanks precisely to the burrs.
. First of all, the plate is covered with resin; afterwards, the areas the artist does not want to be bitten by acid are covered, generally with varnish or lightbulb lacquer. This process is carried out progressively, depending on the desired tones: the areas which are to be dark will be exposed to the acid for longer. The plate is then submerged in a soft acid, that dissolves the surface in the uncovered areas; these steps are repeated as often as necessary until achieving the desired tones. Once this process is finalized, the plate is cleaned –with alcohol if the material used is resin or wax, with petrol if varnish was used and with acetone is lightbulb lacquer was used. The plate is then inked and the paper is prepared by submerging it in water before printing.
techniques. Each work is composed quite similarly, based on a large solid blotch or stain of expanded colour which takes over virtually the whole support, framed by varying kinds and textures of random traces.
For the artist, each colour is an expression of itself, a memory, a lived experience, that lays his works bare, whether oil on canvas or prints.
For him, blue represents childhood, a memory of the bluing used for cleaning clothes that his mother used to make; red meant the ochre colour of the earth in his native Andalucía; and he was truly passionate about black, despite the familiar tragic connotations for the artist who saw his mother dressed in mourning every day after the early death of his father; yellow was the wheat fields, deeply rooted in his own peasant background and his strolls in the countryside; white reminded him of the whitewashed walls of the houses from his childhood; mauve and violet stood for fruit like figs and prickly pears; grey spoke to him of the mountains of his homeland. In consequence, his engagement with colour was vital and energetic, intimate and personal. There was no room for shadows and he seemed to share with the viewer every sensation and every experience he lived through.
