José Guerrero

José Guerrero (Spain, 1914–1994) was a painter and printmaker who studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Granada and the San Fernando Academy in Madrid. He subsequently undertook a series of formative journeys through various European cities before moving to New York in 1950. Working across painting and printmaking, his practice evolved from figuration toward abstraction.

His artistic practice was associated with Abstract Expressionism and Action Painting. In the years preceding his return to Spain, he introduced formal references to the landscapes of Granada, rendered with taut, vigorous brushwork, without establishing thematic connections to or seeking to convey a dramatic response to the Franco regime. From 1970 onward, he entered a phase centered on the Fosforescencias series and the motif of the arch, before grounding his work in compositional order, mastery of color, and an understanding of the painting as a form of mural architecture. His exploration of color fields and abstraction with expressive content made him an influential figure for a new generation of Spanish painters in the 1970s.

Over the course of his career, he was appointed a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 1959, received the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts in 1984, and was honored by the Rodríguez-Acosta Foundation in 1989. His works are held in major national and international museums, including the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Centro José Guerrero in Granada, among others. Leer menos