Peasant. Oil On Canvas. Vela Zanetti, José. 1972.

Peasant. Oil on canvas. VELA ZANETTI, José. 1972.
Signed and dated (lower right).
José Vela Zanetti (Milagros, Burgos, 1913-Burgos, 1999) is a painter best known for his murals. He began his training in León, where he settled with his family and held his first exhibition in 1931. Supported by his father, he traveled to Madrid for a few months to see exhibitions and visit the Prado Museum. Shortly after, he received a scholarship to visit Italy, awarded by the Provincial Council of León. Following the Spanish Civil War, he moved to the Dominican Republic, where he remained until 1960. In Santo Domingo, he founded the National School of Fine Arts with other exiled artists. During this period, he organized exhibitions and projects in Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and the United States. Throughout his life, he received important public commissions, such as the mural inaugurated in 1953 at the United Nations headquarters, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, considered his most important work. Other notable works include his historical murals for the Burgos Provincial Council and the frescoes in the old Ercilia Theater in Barahona, Dominican Republic. A member of the Academy of San Fernando, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Burgos. In 2001, the Cultural Center of the City of Madrid organized a retrospective of Vela Zanetti's work, entitled "Anthología," the most important to date. A commemorative exhibition for the tenth anniversary of his death was recently held at the Ángeles Penche Gallery in Madrid. His works are part of the collections of the Caja Rural de Burgos and the Vela Zanetti Foundation in León, as well as murals in various cities in Spain, Santo Domingo, the United States, Colombia, and Switzerland. In 2013, the Fórum Evolución de Burgos organized a major exhibition dedicated to the work of Vela Zanetti, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth. -
Dimensions: 83x5x99 cms. int 65x81 cms