Ginés Parra (1896-1960)

Born Jose Parra Menchon, known as Ginés Parra, was one of a group of important Spanish artists fundamental in the avant-garde formation of the École de Paris, which also included Pablo Picasso, Antoni Clavé, Francisco Bores and Joaquín Peinado. Having spent his childhood in North Africa, Parra studied at the Art Students League in New York, a progressive artist-run art school, which gave shape to his early formation of ideas. Later, he enrolled in the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he developed further under the tutelage of Lucien Simon and Louis Roger. Parra’s mature style explored both Fauvist and Cubist possibilities, the former emphasising dramatic colour, the latter interpreting three dimensional reality into a two dimensional canvas with the use of dynamic line and form. His heavy use of impasto and black outline also conjures the influence of Cézanne and Rouault. Parra exhibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Indépendants, and throughout Europe during his lifetime. Since then, he continues to hold an international interest with two significant retrospectives held in London in 1971 and in Australia in 1973.