Gabino Rey continued the tradition of realist and impressionist painting in Spain of the early years of the 20th century centred on landscapes, portraits and still-lifes. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he and his family moved to Barcelona, where he began to study art at an early age. In 1943, at the age of 14, he painted a self-portrait that won him First Prize at the 1st Young Artists Salon organised by the Dalmau Gallery. He took part in the coffee-house discussions of the artists in the innovative, groundbreaking Dau al Set group, but opted to go his own way under the direction of his drawing teacher Ramon Rogent. In 1945 the French Institute awarded him a grant to go to Paris that he was unable to take up. Two years later he gave up painting, and did not return to it until 1957. His work is basically figurative and true to the naturalistic interpretation of reality, with loose brush-strokes that turn light and colour into a style that he seems to have inherited from Spanish impressionism and post-impressionism.

His first exhibition took place in 1957, at the Parés Gallery in Barcelona. He remained linked to that gallery, but his work was also shown at the El Cisne Gallery (Madrid, 1968) and in Lugo, Pontevedra and Alicante, and outside Spain in Los Angeles, New York and Paris. The distinctions obtained during his career include First Prize at the 3rd Unión del Arte International Exhibition in Bilbao (1947).

Roberto Díaz