3. José Guerrero

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3. José Guerrero

Audioguía

José Guerrero was born in Granada in 1914 and received his training in his hometown, Madrid, and Paris. His career reached great international renown, becoming one of the main artists of Abstract Expressionism.

In 1950 he went to the United States, the epicenter of modern art at the time. In New York he established his prestige and came into contact with prominent artists such as Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell. At this time, he took the decisive step towards the abstract, forming part of the color field painting movement. The critic Juan Manuel Bonet coined the term Guerrero effect to refer to the energy and chromatism that Guerrero brings to Spanish painting.

The painting, Rojo Oscuro (Dark Red), shows the author's characteristic stroke. The red coexists with other colors that further enhance the original intensity of the main pigment. José María Moreno Galván writes about it in the magazine, Triunfo:

"Guerrero takes a color and creates what we could call "a color field." Few painters are capable, as he is, of sustaining a color field for such a long time and such a distance without weakening it, without wearing it out... Then, Guerrero's color is enlivened by a slight chromatic burst that almost always implies a formal break."