20th-21st Century. Spanish

Vicente Ameztoy grew up in a cultivated family in the city of San Sebastian. His training as a painter was guided by his uncle, Gonzalo Chillida (1926-2008), and by lessons from Ascensio Martiarena (1884-1966). In 1959, while still just thirteen years old, he participated (outside the official programme) in the Exposición de los 10, an iconic show of the ten leading Basque artists of the time. In the following years Ameztoy was involved in the local cultural scene and won several painting awards. In 1964 he briefly attended the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid, where he became acquainted with Antonio López (1936), which would result, later on, in the emergence of certain parallels in the works of both artists, like the depiction of female faces and fruit in surreal scenes. In that same year he presented his work in the opening exhibition of the legendary Juana Mordó gallery, and in 1967 he had his first solo show at Galería Barandiaran, in San Sebastian.

In 1970 the artist went to live in the family manor house in Villabona (Guipuzcoa), an experience that was to have a profound effect on his painterly language. Ameztoy wished to speak about the history of his own land, and to do so he played with the ambivalence of perception, tricks, mirror reflections and mist. He created an ambiguous world in which human figures are confused and blurred, integrated into a landscape which, in turn, emanates from within the bodies themselves.

Ameztoy frequently created dolls and puppets with articulated limbs and moving eyes. And while they are reflections on children’s games, they may also be seen as macabre unanimated beings whose apparently mechanical consciousness keeps us under surveillance. Other times he focused on the construction of boxes made with found and intervened objects.

Some of the Basque art practitioners from the previous generation, who felt the need to create anti-bourgeois and anti-Franco art, viewed Ameztoy’s body of work as banal and conformist. However, although it never led to the emergence of art collectives, the shared spirit defining Ameztoy’s generation is precisely that playful, ironic and figurative practice.

His painting from the 1970s and 1980s incorporated odd bulky forms and figures wrapped in cloth which seem to sprout from natural elements. In his works, the human figures once again play with tricks of perception: they are mechanical creatures, or individuals with either translucent or wooden limbs, often dressed in clothing made from vegetation.

These characters are part of a mythical, theatrical stage set, and seem to be telling enigmatic stories that include elements from the Basque landscape (such as almiares, the typical local haystacks), from its cultural past (traditional clothing) or even members of the artist’s family who, shrouded in personal symbolism, are elevated to a mythological status.

His last major project was a commission he received for the shrine of Our Lady of Remelluri (Labastida, Alava), consisting of a group of six saints connected with the Basque Country and agricultural labour, and a painting representing Paradise. He concluded the series in 2001, shortly before his demise.

Throughout his career Vicente Ameztoy also worked in cinema, theatre and design. He collaborated frequently with the filmmaker Jesús Almendros, designing sets and costumes for the Souletin pastoral Pantzart (Agerre Teatroa, 1991) and conceiving covers for the magazines Euskadi Sioux (1979), Zeruko Argia (1978) and for books for Hordago, among other publishing companies.

His works are in major collections of Basque art, including Artium and Kutxa. In 2020, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, and Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao, organized a large retrospective exhibition surveying his career.