Jose Campuzano (1918-1979) Spanish/American, Oil on Canvas. Depicts two fishermen tending their nets. Signed lower right. Informational flier on the artist attached to the back upper left. 

Overall: 37 X 37 in. 

Sight: 36 X 36 in. 

#3771 . 

Jose Luis Campuzano was born in Bilbao, Spain in 1918. He studied at the School of Arts and Functions and later entered the University of Victoria, where he majored in philosophy. After teaching for many years at local academies he worked solely on art for a time, but sought new inspiration. In 1955 he left Spain for South America, where he spent almost the next  two decades moving from Uruguay to Argentina and finally Brazil, working as an artist. During this period his paintings were shown back in his hometown of Bilbao as well as in Montevideo, Uruguay, São Paulo, Brazil, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1971 he was awarded second place in the Collective Exposition in the Artesania Gallery in Spain. He also illustrated books, crafted children’s toys, and worked as a graphic designer, immersing himself in the culture of the colonial and indigenous people. In 1973 he was invited to New York City by the Uruguayan artist Jorge Dumas and the Belgian artist Gaston Pierre, with whom he formed a small collective. It was here that he built a reputation for romantic street scenes and soaring abstracts, influenced by his many years below the equator. He was an admirer of Sorolla, Renoir, Soya, and Rubens, aspiring to embody their influences in all his work. In his final years Campuzano had exhibitions at The Old Olive Tree Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Gallery in the Square in Boston, Massachusetts, the Carolyn Summers Gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Clayton Art Gallery in St. Louis, Missouri. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1979 while preparing for a solo show in Chicago, Illinois.