Pancho Cossio

PANCHO COSSIO (Pinar del Río, Cuba, 1898 - Alicante, 1970).
"Figs.
Lithograph, copy VII/XX.
Signed and justified by hand.
Measurements: 35 x 49 cm.

Francisco Gutiérrez Cossío, better known as Pancho Cossío, was son of Spanish parents settled in Cuba, who returned to Spain at the outbreak of the war of independence in the island. Pancho Cossío began his training with Francisco Rivero, and later entered the workshop of Cecilio Pla, with whom he remained until 1918. In his early years, he retained his taste for a clear palette, but the young Cossío had already left behind the fine, nervous brushstroke and, with it, naturalism, focusing on an increasingly fantastic vision of reality. In addition, he was already composing with greater geometric rigor than Pla, based on large planes of color. His costumbrist themes were represented with decorativism, like large illustrations; he had not yet discovered the importance of pictorial matter. In 1923 he settled in Paris, and that same year he sent a nude to the Salon des Indépendants. In 1925 he took part in the Salon d'Automne, finally attracting the attention of the critics. He was then discovered by René Jean, an illustrious French critic who singled him out among all the painters in the exhibition. It was in Paris where Cossío discovered the personality of his painting, rejecting the cerebral and literary art that dominated the French environment of the time to focus on purely plastic issues. Only four years after his participation in the Salon d'Automne, the painter already enjoys importance in the art circle; the most outstanding galleries dispute to show his work, and his most characteristic phase within his Parisian period begins: the one characterized by oval forms and marine themes, marked by a deep lyricism. His is a distinctly Spanish painting, marked by earthy and gray tones, a sensitivity more ethical than aesthetic and the importance of the pictorial matter. In 1932 Cossío returned to Spain, where he combined painting with political activism. After the civil war he resumed his career, with increasingly austere works, derived from a voluntary limitation of the palette. Nevertheless, the richness remains in the pictorial qualities, achieving an apparent contradiction that originates a special placid, almost magical atmosphere. In 1944 he exhibited in Madrid, obtaining an important success. However, he remained silent for four years until 1948, when he began a series of important exhibitions in Barcelona, Madrid and Santander. Two years later his definitive consecration came with the exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid. Since then his exhibitions will be constant, and he will also participate with success in contests such as the National Exhibition of Fine Arts, where he obtained a medal of honor in 1962 and a special room was dedicated to him in 1966. Pancho Cossío is currently represented in the MNCA Reina Sofía, the Museo de Bellas Artes de Santander, the Galería Leandro Navarro collection and many others, both public and private.