My friend and I, who has been one of my students for a very long time, went up to see a very rare and special exhibition in Valencia City. I had been teaching about Romanticism lately, and this artist took Romanticism right overboard into pure fantasy.
When we study about Romanticism, we learn about when artists turned away from just reproducing objective reality, like replicating an apple or a human or whatever, and started to use their imagination to create narrative paintings with images that were pulled from their imagination and made visible utilizing their skills. This was a real turning point in art history, and this artist completely turned it on its ear with his imagination.
The exhibition featured José Segrelles, the fantasy illustrator. Among his versatile body of work, his fantasy themes were the ones that achieved the greatest international recognition, earning this Valencian artist a prominent place in contemporary art history.
As a Valencian illustrator, he received his highest international acclaim in the 1920s and 1930s. His imaginative paintings were published in several of the most popular British magazines, such as The Sketch and The Illustrated London News, which opened the doors to the emerging US market for him.
He displayed his works at the International Art Center of the Roerich Museum in New York City, where he kept his studio from 1929 to 1932. New York critics praised his overflowing imagination, his originality, his impressive technique, and the magical blue hue of his color palette.
His legacy lived on in the imagery of the greatest illustrators and filmmakers in the fantasy genre. Creators such as Roy G. Krenkel, Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Jeffrey Jones, Bernie Wrightson, William Stout, John Howe, and Michael Kaluta expressed their admiration for Segrelles' art. In fact, conceptual references to some of the Valencian artist's most famous artworks could even be found in films by Guillermo del Toro, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and Disney.
This exhibition showcased many of the original pieces that were displayed nearly a century ago in New York and that continued to serve as a source of inspiration for other artists. It served as a long-overdue retrospective and a well-deserved tribute to our most influential illustrator in today's imaginative and fantastical art.
Next, we will visit his House Museum out in Albaida, Valencia, which is about a 90-minute drive from my teaching studio in Benitachell. We will see where he lived and the house he custom built and designed for himself. Plus, his house is full of his artwork that he kept for his own personal gratification, enjoyment, and sentimental reasons.
