"ANZO" JOSÉ IRANZO ALMONACID (Utiel, Valencia, 1931 - 2006).

"ANZO" JOSÉ IRANZO ALMONACID (Utiel, Valencia, 1931 - 2006). Untitled. Mixed media on canvas. Signed in the lower right corner. Attached certificate of authenticity issued by the artist's daughter. Provenance: Private collection of the artist. Measurements: 61 x 46 cm. Anzo made his first works known with the illustration of the mural diary of the Escolapios school, where he studied high school thanks to a scholarship. He attended the School of Arts and Crafts in Valencia, and later moved to study architecture in Barcelona. In 1954 he returned to Valencia with the firm idea of entering definitively in the plastic arts. Anzo belongs to that group of Valencian artists who emerged during the long Spanish post-war period, and trained in the midst of Franco's regime. Pop Art took an increasingly predominant role in his artistic production. He began to experiment with different printing procedures, in a social framework clearly influenced by an economic development accompanied by an inherent change in the cultural dynamics of the moment. The fact of turning the world of everyday mass-media myths into a reference in his works, opened a new artistic door in his production in which television images would play a decisive role. Anzo thus became the introducer of pop in Valencian artistic culture, and the maximum representative of the current at a national level. The artist was driven by the need to combine science and art to assert a message about a reality that he embraced and from which his new creations drank. This new artistic dimension gradually distanced him from Pop Art and brought him closer to what in Europe was known as "Mec Art". Enthusiastic with the use of the new media, Anzo began a series of paintings that he called "Aislamientos" (Isolations). In the 80's he began what would become his last stage. After definitively closing the latent struggle of his isolations, he began a new stage which he called "Lyrical Geometry". In the apparent coldness of the geometric lines, a poetic sensibility could be glimpsed, rediscovering color and lyricism. His work is still linked to abstraction and offered an optimistic vision: "I believe that beauty arises from the balance between the mathematical and the lyrical". In 2003 he received the Plastic Arts Award from the Generalitat Valenciana. Anzo had been retired from art for some years. The death of his wife and other personal circumstances plunged him into a process of introspection. Finally, a long illness ended his life in 2006. Anzo has had exhibitions in more than thirty countries around the world, in addition to most of the national capitals. His work can be found in several museums and notorious public collections, such as: Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo (Madrid), Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum, Basel Kunstmuseum, Oslo Nasjonalgalleriet, New York Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro Museu de Arte moderna, Tel Aviv Museum, Ljubljana Moderna Galerija, etc.