CIRILO MARTÍNEZ NOVILLO (Madrid, 1921 - 2008). "Landscape",... Lot 17

CIRILO MARTÍNEZ NOVILLO (Madrid, 1921 - 2008). "Landscape", 1979. Oil on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner. Signed with initials and dated on the back. Size: 46 x 55 cm; 69 x 77 cm (frame). Cirilo Martínez Novillo is one of the most outstanding representatives of the so-called School of Madrid, city where he begins his training in the School of Arts and Crafts. During the Civil War he entered the Escuela Superior de Pintura and attended the studio of Daniel Vázquez Díaz, who became his teacher and supported him throughout his career. In his studio Martínez Novillo met some of the painters linked to the Madrid School: Álvaro Delgado, Gregorio del Olmo, García Ochoa and San José. In 1946 he presented his work for the first time as part of a group exhibition held at the Bucholz gallery in Madrid. The following year he held his first individual exhibition at the same gallery. In 1948 he held an exhibition in the prints room of the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid, the critics began to echo his work and he was selected to take part in the exhibition "Arte Español", held in Buenos Aires and organised by the Ministry of Education. From then on he exhibited in various Spanish cities and in France, and took part in group exhibitions such as the Venice Biennial (1950) and the Salón de los Once (1951). Between 1952 and 1953 he travelled to Paris on three occasions thanks to various grants. His period of maturity began with a new visit to Paris at the beginning of the sixties, after which he travelled to Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Belgium, winning several medals at the National Exhibitions of Fine Arts, as well as the Painting Prize at the Hispano-American Biennial in Cuba. Although he did not belong to the Second Vallecas School, Martínez Novillo's painting is aesthetically close to that of the group. His production is mainly centred on landscape painting and still lifes, although at first he also devoted himself to the figure. The painter produced his landscapes through direct contemplation of nature, not by copying it, as he then made a selection of what interested him in his studio. Cirilo Martínez Novillo is represented in the Reina Sofía Museum, the Mapfre, AENA, Gaya Nuño and Santander Central Hispano Foundations, the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid, the Bilbao and Oviedo Fine Arts Museums, the Argentaria, Caja España and Telefónica collections and the Valdepeñas Museum.