Near Irun - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Near Irun

Montes Iturrioz, Gaspar

Irun, Gipuzkoa, 27/01/1901-Irun, Gipuzkoa, 24/11/1998

Oil on canvas

86.5 x 100.3 cm

MONTES ITURRIOZ (bottom right hand corner)

1927

First third of the 20th century

82/91

Acquired in 1932

While early on he saw the portrait as his only way of working as a professional artist, at that point he had more or less given in to the influence of Salís's landscape art, and, like him, did much of his painting in that genre. His Constructivist approach to the landscape is clearly indebted to Cézanne, whose work he discovered in Paris, and, in particular, to the painters who reinterpreted the Frenchman's art, including Ramiro Arrue and Daniel Vázquez Díaz.

Near Irun belongs to this period. It is a poetic reflection on his most familiar environment, which he ndows with a certain timelessness by geometrizing it, a task imposed by his commitment to a post-Cézanne vision. The work has all the compositional and colour characteristics featuring in his production of the time: the constant use of verticals provided by bare trees, opposed to the horizontals of the road and the bridge and the warm tones of the greens and earths, lit by the soft golden light of dusk, against which the white of the farmstead stands out. [Mikel Lertxundi]

Selected bibliography

  • Segunda Exposición de Artistas Vascongados : organizada por la Junta del Museo de Arte Moderno de Bilbao, 15 de mayo a 15 de junio 1932 [Folleto]. Bilbao, Museo de Arte Moderno, 1932. n° cat. 54.
  • "Cuales fueron los dieciseis cuadros enviados por los rojos al Extranjero, otros trece han sido encontrados en el Carlton", Hierro. 28 de septiembre de 1937. p. 3.
  • Bengoechea, Javier de. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía del visitante. Bilbao, Caja de Ahorros Vizcaína, 1977. p. 339.
  • Bengoechea, Javier de. Catálogo de arte moderno y contemporáneo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya, 1980. p. 87. (Alrededores de Irún).
  • Mur Pastor, Pilar. La Asociación de Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao ; Caja de Ahoros Vizcaína, 1985. p. 153.
  • Kortadi Olano, Edorta. Euskal margolariak Aurrezki Kutxen bildumetan IV = Pintores vascos en las colecciones de las Cajas de Ahorros IV. Bilbao, Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa ; Gipuzkoa Donostia Kutxa ; Caja Vital Kutxa, 1994. p. 28.
  • Gaspar Montes Iturrioz [Cat. exp.]. Donostia-San Sebastián, Ayuntamiento de Irún, 2002. pp. 51, 76.
  • Paisajea Bilboko Arte Eder Museoko Bilduman : Regoyosetik Canejara = El paisaje en la Colección del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : de Regoyos a Caneja [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Fundación Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa Fundazioa, 2006. p. 66-67.
  • Guía Artistas Vascos. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2008. p. 109.
  • Gida Euskal Artistak. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Eder Museoa, 2008. p. 109.
  • Novecentismo y Vanguardia, 1910-1936 : en la colección del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao [Cat. exp.]. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2009. pp. 252-253, n° cat. 79.
  • Guide Basque Artists. Bilbao, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2012. p. 109, n° cat. 56.
  • Berruguete, Ana. Daniel Vázquez Díaz, entre tradición y vanguardia [Tesis doctoral]. Madrid, Universidad Complutense, 2015. p. 334.