Art
Arturo Souto Feijoo - Spanish Master Painter
Published: 08 November 2021
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Arturo Souto Feijoo (April 5,1902 - July 3, 1964) was an important Spanish painter who studied in Seville and Madrid and then traveled to Paris in the 1920s where he was influenced by the avant-garde. Prior to his exile from Spain following the Spanish Civil War, Souto exhibited throughout Europe. While living in Havana, Mexico, and the U.S. during the 1940s until his death in 1964, Souto continued to exhibit and developed a reputation as one of the outstanding Spanish painters of the twentieth century.
Arturo Souto was the son of a high government official in Pontevedra, Galicia in Spain who was also his first art teacher and encouraged him to study the arts. His father's travels took him to Oviedo, Zaragoza, Lugo and then Seville, where he studied at the College of Fine Arts (1916-1920). In 1922 he moved to Madrid where he continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Belle Arts in San Fernando coinciding with the studies of Salvador Dali, among other renown artists. After the completion of his military service in Vigo in 1924 he had his first solo art exhibition in Madrid.
Naked Woman in a Landscape - 1929
After his first trip to Paris in 1926, Souto returned in 1931 sponsored by his native city of Pontevedra with a special assignment. His focus was learning the new artistic trends of the time. During this stage of his learning process he was influenced by renown Italian poet and artist Giorgio de Chirico, known as the the founder of the Metaphysical art movement. In 1934, Souto received a scholarship from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome where he continued his studies until 1936.
Stamp - 1929
Paris at Night - 1930
Ball - 1931
Accordionist - 1931
The Painter Diego Rivera - 1931
Brothel - 1932
Dance Class - 1932
Bullfighter and Maja - 1932
Harlequin - 1932
I GO - 1934
In 1937 he attended the International Symposium of "Writers for the Defense of Culture" which was held in Valencia, Spain. He also participated in the "Paris International Exhibition" Spanish Pavillion where Pablo Picasso was exhibiting his masterpiece "Guernica". The painting was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country village in northern Spain, by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italian warplanes at the request of the Spanish Nationalists. Upon completion, Picasso's Guernica was exhibited at the Spanish display at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (Paris International Exposition) in the 1937 World's Fair in Paris and then at other venues around the world. The touring exhibition was used to raise funds for Spanish war relief.
Militiamen in an Interior - 1937
The Spanish Civil War took place between 1936 and 1939. The war has often been portrayed as a struggle between democracy and fascism, particularly due to the political climate and timing surrounding it. Ultimately, the Nationalists won, and Franco, who already ruled over Nationalist Spain, ruled over all of Spain for the next 36 years.
Refugees - 1937
War Scene - 1937
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - 1937
After the Spanish Civil War ended, Souto decided to go in exile and traveled to Havana, Cuba where he had several art exhibitions. He then traveled to New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia where his work was also displayed in major venues. In 1942 he moved to Mexico City with the assistance of his good friend Jaime Mario Torres Bodet, a prominent Mexican politician and writer who had served in the executive cabinet of three Mexican Presidents. Souto lived and worked in Mexico City until his death in 1964.
Three Women - c 1938
Square of Brussels - 1938
The Los Angeles Drop "Leda and the Swan" - 1938
The Pantheon Seen From Rue Soufflot, Paris - 1941
Composition "Rapture" - 1943
Clowns - 1944
Market in Segovia - 1945
Rue Moufetard, Paris - 1945
Portrate of a Man - 1945
Artist and Model - 1950
Parisians - 1951
