José Vento Ruiz

JOSÉ VENTO RUIZ (Valencia, 1925-Madrid, 2005).Untitled.Silkscreen on paper. Final art / colour proof. Published by the Ibero-Swiss printing house.Presents dry stamp of the Ibero-Swiss printing house.Measurements: 70 x 48,5 cm.In Spain, the Ibero-Swiss company hosted the main Spanish artists from the mid-1960s to the 1990s. The serigrapher José Llopis made this firm an indisputable reference in terms of artistic printing. From artists linked to pop art, optical art and geometric art to Zóbel and Tàpies, as well as artists with a clear political commitment such as Renau, Genovés, Equipo Crónica and Equipo Realidad, they all found Ibero-Suiza's silkscreen printing an ideal technique for their projects: they liked its industrial character, its procedures, the effects and nuances that could be obtained, and the affinity of all this with the resources of the mass media.José Vento Ruiz was one of the leading representatives of neo-figuration in Spain. He studied at the Escuela de Arte y Oficios in Valencia in 1940 and, on completing his studies, discovered that painting was his trade and enrolled at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in Valencia in 1942. His individual style clashed with the prevailing academicism, but in those years he met his friends Manuel Gil (1925-1957) and Federico Montañana (1928-2005). In 1944 he made his first study trip to Madrid to visit museums, exhibitions and the National School of Fine Arts. In 1945 and 1946 he was awarded the Gold Medals at the University Art Exhibition. In 1947 he was awarded a Landscape Scholarship to complete his studies in the town of El Paular. In 1971 he combined painting with teaching Drawing and Plastic Arts. In 1977 he gave up teaching and returned to painting with renewed vigour. He entered a period of crisis due to the transformation of progressive ideologies and the art world, which led him to gradually move away from gatherings and exhibitions. His painting moved increasingly towards pure abstraction, abandoning neo-figuration and expressionism. His painting became fully abstract in 1982. In October 2004 he held his last exhibition at the Salvador Victoria Museum in Rubielos de Mora (Teruel).