Carmelo García Barrena
Bilbao 1926 - Bilbao 2000

García Barrena was one of the most representative Basque figurative painters of the second half of the twentieth century. His childhood was marked by the Spanish Civil War. He went into exile in Belgium, where he began his artistic education at the Antwerp School of Fine Arts. On his return to Spain in 1946, he continued his studies at the Vizcaya Art Association's academy. In 1952 he decided to travel around Europe, visiting Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Antwerp, where he enrolled at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone. His painting is based on a reinterpretation of impressionism with influences drawn from Flemish painting. With his short but fluid brushstrokes and sinuous forms, his landscapes, city views and everyday scenes display great colour and vitality. After a second trip to the Netherlands in 1957 his painting became more expressive; he painted still lifes, experimenting with volume and the use of colour.

From the 1950s on, he staged frequent exhibitions, and his work was included in major shows of Basque art at the Bilbao Museum of Modern Art (1964, 1968 and 1973) and the Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts (2008). Among other accolades, he won First Prize at the National Summer Exhibition (Barakaldo, Bizkaia, 1964 and 1966), the Círculo Mercantil Prize from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Seville (1968) and Gold Medal at the Second Competition of Basque and Navarrese Painting (1975).

Roberto Díaz