José Gutiérrez Solana

Alvaro Gil Varela, Lugo (acquired from the artist)
Juan Rof Carballo, Madrid
Galería Biosca, Madrid
Purchased from the above in 1985

Probably Madrid, Salón de Otoño, 1943, as no. 118
Madrid, Círculo de Bella Artes, Exposición y catalogación de la obra del pintor José G. Solana 1886-1945, I muestra, n. 46
Castro-Sada-La Coruña, Museo Carlos Maside, Solana. Oleos, 1971, no. 178, illustrated in the catalogue

Solana. Oleos, Museo Carlos Maside, Sada-El Castro-La Coruña, 1977
José Luis Barrio Garay, Solana, London-New York, 1978, fig. 271 (as Cuatro Máscaras)
Luis Alonso Fernández, J. Solana. Estudio y Catalogación de su obra, Madrid, 1985, p. 265, no. P. 304, catalogued & illustrated

The canvas has not been lined. As just visible in the catalogue illustration there is a minor circa 5cm vertical hairline scratch to the left of the signature. Under ultraviolet light a few very minor, scattered pinhead-sized spots appear to fluoresce and it is just possible that these could correspond to retouching. The painting is in excellent original condition, and its appearance could be greatly enhanced with a surface clean. Presented in a gold-painted frame with a black-painted central band. The work is stamped and titled on the reverse by the artist's brother, Manuel Gutiérrez Solana.
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Painted circa 1943, Dostrozonas de la sartén is a brilliant expression of Solana's very personal aesthetic. Inspired by Goya's Burial of the Sardine. The artist relegates the carnival celebration to focus on four figures that represent the spirit and appearance of the pilgrimage. The tension of the figures in the forefront is intensified by their sustained balance and the contrast of the dark colours against the light blue of the figure on the left.

Solana’s paintings at once satirise and celebrate the rites and rituals of the rural communities of Santander and Castille. By focusing on the fanciful, the hysterical, the grotesque, and the macabre, Solana emphasises the bleak provinciality that isolated Spain from modern Europe following the loss of its colonial possessions and status as a world power at the end of the nineteenth century. On the other hand, Solana - like the patriotic intellectuals of the Generación de 98 who called for the regeneration of Spain and with whom he fraternised - seems to be saying that the country’s future is founded upon its proud traditions and the patriotism of its people.

Born on Carnival Sunday in Madrid in 1886, Solana was predestined to have a fascination with processions and grotesque masks. Like the Belgian Symbolist and Realist artist James Ensor, whose works he would have known through their mutual friend Darío de Regoyos, masks allowed Solana to remove himself and his art from the political statement that underlies so many of his paintings.