Pérez Villalta

BIOGRAPHY OF GUILLERMO PÉREZ VILLALTA

He was born in Tarifa (Cadiz) in 1948.

He began a career in architecture, but abandoned it to devote himself to painting.

Awarded a scholarship by the Ministry of Culture in 1975 and by the Juan March Foundation in 1980, Pérez Villalta obtained a scholarship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.

His work is very literary, always resorting to myths or classical legends. Formally, he works and elaborates his pieces in a meticulous way, almost like embroidery with religious imagery. The constant presence of the self-portrait stands out, immersed in the symbolism hidden in the environment in which he places the characters.

Pérez Villalta belonged to the so-called Nueva Figuración Madrileña of the 80s, who claimed the return to painting in the face of the new conceptualist trends of the time. He was no stranger to the politicization of painting in that decade. In "Evolution", he addresses the theme of the origin of man, his isolation and his ultimate essence, using the metaphor of a fossilized nautilus, a being that is carried away by the rhythm of the currents. It reflects on evolution and the future of man, lost in infinity and in his own arithmetic.

Permanent collections (Selection):

Reina Sofía National Museum and Art Center (Madrid)
Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art of Seville
Bilbao Fine Arts Museum