FÉLIX ARTETA ERRASTI (Valladolid, 1890 - Bilbao,... Lot 11

FÉLIX ARTETA ERRASTI (Valladolid, 1890 - Bilbao, 1986). "Romería". Mixed media on paper. Signed in the lower right corner. Measurements: 65 x 53 cm; 88 x 105 cm. Félix Arteta's painting was characterised, as is shown here, by a rapid and spontaneous drawing which, in spite of this, manages to compose a harmonious whole, which transmits the daily joy of living and sharing. Félix and his brother Aurelio shared iconographic interests: the representation of the Basque world in all its aspects, from its popular festivals to its landscapes. But Félix opted for quicker techniques such as watercolour or drawing which allowed him to express his temperamental impetus. Félix Arteta was a Spanish watercolourist, draughtsman and caricaturist, brother of the painter Aurelio Arteta. The son of a railway worker, he made his first exhibitions in the 1940s (Madrid in 1942, Bilbao in 1946, 1948 and 1949; and in 1950 in San Sebastian and Valladolid), and in the early 1950s at the Basque Centre in Mexico (1951) and in Havana (1952). He won a 3rd Medal at the Provincial Exhibition of Fine Arts in Bilbao in 1946, and collaborated as an illustrator and caricaturist in the newspaper ABC. A retrospective exhibition in the summer of 2012 (San Sebastián Kutxa, Sala Boulevard), curated by Edorta Kortadi, helped to vindicate his artistic worth.