José Luís ZUMETA

Born in 1939, a native of Ursubil (where in 1974 he created a 145m² fresco on its square), situated in the southern part of the Spanish Basque Country, José Luis Zumeta, with his inspiring, light-filled paintings, surely is one of the “greatest” artists of Contemporary Basque Painting.

His unique form of inspiration has motivated his work since the sixties (in 1967, Zumeta, then a young artist, began his career by winning First Prize for the “Gran Premio de Pintura Vasca” Competition). Over time, his paintings have increasingly been characterised by ever greater freedom. On his work, José Luis Zumeta declares that, “my way of painting, if it has not changed much, it has gained in neatness. Basically, since the 1970s, I do not think that it has changed much. Maybe before it was more organic, vegetal, grounded on a relationship to nature. Whereas today, it is characterised by a balance between its organic and more geometric aspects, between something shapeless and something that renders my painting more concrete and therefore more crystal-like. What matters is finding a balance between these two tendencies”.

Zumeta has reached that balance, especially when one looks at his works exhibited in the Urdax’ cloister. Technique, expressiveness, balance and ingenuity… Words don’t do justice to specifically describe the talent of Zumeta “the Great”!

Zumeta’s works are exhibited all over the world, including: The Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao, The Museum of Fine Arts of Álava, The Museum San Telmo in San Sebastián, The Contemporary Art Fund of Santa Cruz on Tenerife or The Museum of Solidarity in Santiago (Chile). To quote the poet Koldo Izagirre, “if Zumeta paints like this, it is not so that we can say that he is Basque, but that he is a citizen of the world”.

       

 

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