20th Century Spanish

Vicente studied painting at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid, where he made contact with the so-called poet painters, a group of young Spaniards who would make up the Spanish Surrealism movement.

In 1929 he moved to Paris, where he worked as a set designer at some big theatres.

After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War he left for New York, where he remained the rest of his life. In 1940 he obtained US citizenship. He became a member of the School of New York, which gave rise to , together with some the most influential painters of the 20^th century, such as Mark Rothko (1903 - 1970), Jackson Pollock (1912 - 1956) or Robert Motherwell (1915 - 1991). In America he was also influential as a teacher, and was a founding member of the of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture.

His paintings can be classified within the spatialist style that arose from that movement, with colour compositions made with dense, bright and non-rigid geometric patches, harmonising cold and warm ranges of colour.

His career met with unanimous acclaim, particularly in the final years of his life. His many prizes include the Gold Medal in Fine Arts in 1991 or the Grand Cross of Alfonso X el Sabio in 1999.