Jesus Fuertes - original oil painting - disciple of Picasso - authentic

This is a large signed oil painting by Jesus Fuertes, who was an important Spanish painter and disciple of Dali and Picasso. The painting is original and is guaranteed to be authentic. It comes framed. Below you can read an extensive biography of Fuertes.

Provenance
Private collection of Stephen Baring. Collection includes two inherited collections and twenty five years of personal collecting. The collection numbers well over 1,000 works of art and a number will be sold over the coming weeks to fund a project. The piece comes complete with a statement of authenticity.

Jesus Fuertes (1938-2006) was a cubist painter also known as the Painter of Blue - an extraordinary artist who was mentored by Salvador Dalí, and who Pablo Picasso himself described as a true genius. The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once stated: ‘To contemplate one of Fuertes' pieces of art is to contemplate beautiful creations of life. The glorious fruits of his labor are not a miracle, but rather the result of the systematic development of his natural talents.’

Jesus Fuertes extensively exhibited solo and in group in museums across the world, and his paintings have been acquired by various museums such as the Queen Sofia of Spain's Museum in Madrid, the Beaux Arts Museum in Brussels, the Contemporary Art Museum in Vienna and the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, Brazil, as well as by illustrious figures such as Juan Carlos I and Sofia of Greece and Denmark - His and Her Majesties the King and Queen of Spain - Princess Christina of the Netherlands, the King and Queen of Belgium, Prince Albert II of Belgium, Baron Benjamin de Rothschild, Spanish Ambassador Miguel de Aldasoro, Jacqueline Onassis, Paloma Picasso, Yves Saint Laurent, Paco Rabanne, Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski, Sylvester Stallone, Julio Iglesias, Mireille Mathieu, Sara Montiel, Charles Aznavour, Sacha Distel, Capital Bank Founder and President Abel Holtz, Deutsche Bank, Phillips, Boeringer Int., Bayer, Iberia and Sabena Airlines.

Born in Madrid, Spain in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War, Jesus Fuertes was the son of an intellectual and devoted Bohemian poet who moved in the same literary circles as the eminent poets Jorge Guillen and Pedro Salinas. He also shared great friendships and idealisms with Salvador Dalí, poet-dramatist Frederico García Lorca and poet and painter Rafael Alberti. These men thrived on the spiritual richness and the great cultural changes that marked Spain in the 20th Century.

War and political uncertainty in Spain forced the Fuertes family to sought political asylum in France. While in France, his father met Pablo Picasso who at that time was involved with a group that helped Spanish artists and intellectuals adjust to life in exile. He began to frequent symposiums attended by Picasso and they soon become lifelong friends.

In the years that followed, the younger Fuertes garnered the benefits of all the creativity that surrounded him. A naturally gifted artist, he created forms like the ones he was accustomed to seeing in the studios of the Spanish painters in Paris.

At the age of 15, he participated in an art exhibition for the first time - an exposition on Young European Painters held in Berlin. Having acquired a second place prize, Fuertes began to rank among emerging avant-garde painters of the time.

His first contact with the Surrealistic world was made through Salvador Dalí, who introduced him to André Breton, the father of the Surrealistic Movement. The restless spirit of Fuertes, however, made him receptive to other trends, other movements and quests, attracting the enthusiasm of Pablo Picasso. An assiduous contact between the great master and Fuertes soon developed, thus permitting Fuertes to research the roots of Cubism. This lead him to paint his first Neocubist canvas.

In 1958 he exhibited with Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Antoni Tàpies and Pablo Picasso at the Bruxelles International Expo, Spanish Pavilion.

In 1963 Fuertes left for Rome to receive the first place prize for his painting "Torneo Medieval" awarded by the Grand Prix de Rome for Painting and Sculpture, and it was in Italy that he developed a close friendship with Giorgio De Chirico, the renowned master painter of metaphysical art, with whom shortly after he exhibited his work along with notable constructivists and surrealists Balthus, Umberto Boccioni and Carlo Carra in 1965.

On his return to Paris, Fuertes met Alechinsky, a member of the CoBrA group (considered the last great avant-garde movement of the century), who with Apel and other artists met regularly at the "La Coupole Café". It is at these meetings that Fuertes began his friendship with the abstractionist painter Viola.

In 1967 Salvador Dalí himself presented a Fuertes´exhibition at the Grévin Museum in Paris and in the two years that follow Fuertes exhibited along with Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Francis Picabia, Paul Delvaux, Félix Labisse, Man Ray, Max Ernst and others. After that, his paintings were extensively exhibited around Europe and the United States.

In 1979 Fuertes moved to São Paulo, Brazil where he developed some audacious colouring expressions - a true representation of one of the first forms of "Tropical Neo-Cubism". There he gained the respect and admiration of local modern art collectors, museums and the general public.

Surprisingly, Jesus Fuertes uses geometric structures not to decompose his compositions but to reorganize his world with order, to recompose remarkable figures, in which the appeal to cubistic treatment expresses irony.

In 1996, Fuertes established a studio in Miami, Florida where he lived until his death in June 2006 at the age of 68.

Jesus Fuertes often chose women and cats as his subject matter. Several of his well-known works involve the use of shades of blue, which earned him the moniker "Painter of Blue."

An important, authentic painting by a famous listed artist that will be much admired in your home or office. Will provide an excellent financial investment as well as a possession to enjoy. You are welcome to return for a full refund if you are not entirely happy. Also, please feel free to view at our central London showroom.