Pedro Mozos

Herrera de Valdecañas (Palencia), 1915 - 1982

A self-taught artist, he moved to Madrid when he was four, after his father died, and he attended classes at the official schools. His talent was discovered by Julio Moisés and he was sponsored by Ignacio Zuloaga, who helped him to exhibit for the first time in 1933 at Madrid's Fine Arts Circle, where he would return in 1942 and whose Painting Prize he won in 1975.

Thanks to a Conde de Cartagena scholarship from the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1935 he was able to travel to Italy, France and the then-still-Spanish territory of Morocco, to perfect his drawing, a skill he excelled at and for which he was widely rewarded and acclaimed. One year previously he had participated in the National Fine Arts Exhibition, and he would do so again several times during the forties and fifties, as well as participating in the first Salón de los Once (1943), the Venice Biennials of 1954 and 1956 and the Hispano-American Exhibitions of 1951 and 1955.

He belonged to the well-known Madrid School, a group of artists who participated in a collective exhibition at the Bucholz gallery in 1946 and who understood art and creativity as the means of expressing their desire for freedom and struggle against the social immobility in Spain at that time. He was one of the most dynamic painters of his era, and had continuous collective and individual exhibitions both in Spain and elsewhere in Europe. He was always striving to learn more, and so resided in Paris and Rome, with a scholarship from the Juan March Foundation in 1958 and 1959, to learn about new artistic movements.

His dynamic and enterprising spirit was always active, with commissions such as the murals he painted in the Palencia Provincial Assembly, or his contribution to the 1971 UEE calendar 1971 with the work "Con la escopeta al hombro" (Shotgun on his Shoulder).

In Madrid, he did an excellent job of training upcoming artists in his drawing classes at the School of Arts and Crafts, and in colour and composition classes at the School of Applied Arts, as well as holding a tenured position at the Madrid Fine Arts Faculty from 1964.

1971 Pedro Mozos Shotgun over his shoulder Oil on pressboard 65 x 50 cm.