Portrait of a Woman – Jose Luis Fuentetaja

FUENTETAJA, Jose Luis (1951-) 
Portrait of a Woman
Oil on cardboard  67,5×46,5cm – 26,5×18,25″
Signed on the lower right: Fuentetaja

Madrid born José Luis Fuentetaja started working in advertising at the age of thirteen all the while
attending the School of Arts and Crafts of Vallecas. During travels to Geneva Fuentetaja
decided to devote himself exclusively to art and returned to Spain to further study fine arts.

During these years he began to sell his paintings at the Rastro in Madrid and later in Sitges south of Barcelona. He received classes from Pedro Mozas, a formative experience in fine arts, as was his travels through Europe where he painted views of Paris, London and Amsterdam. During these bohemian years he moved every winter to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for five years, and there he settled in the Parque de Santa Catalina, where he worked and came into direct contact with the different characters that populated the streets of the city, something that would mark the subsequent development of his painting. In 1969 he befriends Sidney Nagley, who organizes his first exhibition in Toronto leading to his first exhibition in Spain, held at the Ateneo de Barcelona.
Befriending the art critic of “La Vanguardia”, Fernando Gutiérrez, and the Count of Caralt commissioned him the illustrations for a new edition of “Romancero gitano” by García Lorca. Some time later he held his first exhibition in a commercial gallery,
which took place in the Majestic Gallery in Barcelona, with a splendid collection of nude drawings
that earned him notable success.