Paisaje (Landscape)

Juan José Luis González Bernal went to Paris in the late 1920s, contributing to an edition of the legendary magazine Minotaure. When the Civil War broke out, he returned to Spain to defend the ideals of the Republic, and the government gave him the job of overseeing a variety of artistic activities – a task he was unable to complete due to health problems. In the iconographic and conceptual context of González Bernal’s output, the oil painting Paisaje (Landscape, 1936) is considered of great interest, particularly for the way it shows the lessons the artist learned in the Surrealist circle in Paris. Like his other landscapes and figures, the painting in the Museo Reina Sofía collection is steeped in magic, enigma and chromatism, and shows indications of an influence from, or rather an affinity with, great artists like Salvador Dalí, Yves Tanguy, René Magritte and Max Ernst.

Paloma Esteban Leal