Ismael González De La Serna

Ismael González de la Serna (Guadix, Granada 1895 - París, 1968) Decorative composition, painted stucco, signed and dated 1946. During the post-war period, La Serna collaborated with decorators and produced stucco paintings to decorate the rooms. walls. He also used this technique for table tops. Among the decorative works, he also painted furniture and screens. Ismael de la Serna's recovery biography: Shortly after his birth, Ismael de la Serna's family moved to Granada, the capital of their province in Andalusia. He began his artistic training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Granada in 1907, exhibited for the first time in 1915 and moved to Madrid in 1917 to continue his studies at the San Fernando Royal Academy. During his stay, La Serna exhibited at the Ateneo (a leading cultural and scientific society) with a selection of paintings clearly reflecting the influence of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism on the young artist. In 1918, he returned to Granada where he exhibited at the Centro Artístico and illustrated the cover of the first book by his friend Federico García Lorca, Impresiones y paisajes. In 1919, La Serna moved to Paris, the center of the art world at the time. He was in close contact with other Spanish artists who also lived there (Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso, Pablo Gargallo, Joan Miró, Manuel Ángeles Ortiz, etc.), and by the end of the 1920s he had become one of the main members of the artistic avant-garde. The prestigious Parisian gallery Paul Guillaume hosted the first French exhibition of La Serna in 1927. In a short time, he exhibited in other large galleries in Brussels, Barcelona and Berlin and developed international recognition. La Serna also participated in a group exhibition in Copenhagen in 1933, collaborated in the design of the Spanish pavilion at the Paris International Fair in 1937 and - in the 1940s and 1950s - shown on several occasions at the National Gallery in Prague, in the Tate in London, the National Museum of Mexico and, towards the end of his career, the Hammer Gallery in New York. In 1963, La Serna suffered a devastating stroke and died five years later. He was a prominent member of the École de Paris. Today, his eclectic production can be found in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Reina Sofía Center in Madrid, the National Gallery in Berlin and the National Museum of Modern Art in Mexico. When La Serna arrived in Paris, the most influential modern art critics were writing for Les Cahiers d'Art under the direction of Tériade and Christian Zervos. They considered La Serna to be one of the greatest modern artists along with Picasso, Bracque, Gris and Matisse. Unfortunately, La Serna's personal life would affect his luminous trajectory: he and Zervos' wife fell in love and his presence on the art scene was subsequently greatly diminished. Stylistically, La Serna's work is very distinctive, the fruit of his own personal blend of Impressionism, Surrealism, Cubism, Expressionism and even abstraction.