DELHY TEJERO RETURNS TO THE ZAMORA MUSEUM

2024-10-15 07:55:00

Delhy Tejero, Architecture, 1960

DELHY TEJERO RETURNS TO THE ZAMORA MUSEUM

Africa Cabanillas Casafranca

The work has just been presented at the Zamora Museum Architecture (1960), by Delhy Tejero, which represents a cultural event in the city, since this provincial museum cannot be conceived without some works by the painter – born in Toro -, one of the most important figures of the Spanish artistic renewal of the late 1920s in the late 1960s. The event was particularly significant and emotional, since the day chosen for its celebration was October 10, but in 1968 the painter died at the age of sixty-four.

The painting Architectureexhibited in Hall VIII of Fine Arts, dedicated to sculpture and painting of the 19th and 20th centuries, it fills the void recently left by another work by Delhy, Moussia (1954), exhibited at the Museum for almost twenty-five years, from 1999 to 2023. After the closing of the artist’s anthological exhibition A girl and a suitcaseheld on the occasion of the XIV Zamora Painting Biennial, until it was purchased by the Reina Sofía Museum, in whose rooms we hope to see it soon. Now, in the collection of the Catalan museum there is no work by Delhy – which is very common even when it comes to female creators – so in both cases they are loans from the painter’s family, heirs to her legacy, from those who have them. ‘They made it possible to fill that gap and admire their work.

Delhy Tejero, central panel of Legal Dawn of the Zamorano People, 1949

Fortunately, a considerable number of Delhy’s works are found in this city, both in private and public collections, among which the mural stands out by far. Legal dawn of the Zamorano people (1949) from the Plenary Hall of the New Town Hall, inspired by the medieval history represented by the jurisdiction granted by King Ferdinand I the Great to the municipality, and which was commissioned after winning a public competition. The painting is preserved in its original location and will soon be restored, which is excellent news, even if it seems like a difficult job, since it was executed with an original and very complex technique, stewed on gold with sienna shades with the canvas as support.

Delhy Tejero, Moussia 1954

The managers of the Zamora Museum, led by Rosario García and Alberto del Olmo, wanted that between the two exhibited works by Delhy, painted in a similar period – separated by just over five years – in 1954 Moussia in 1960 Architecturethere is a relationship or rather a continuity especially with respect to a very interesting and characterizing feature of an important part of Delhy’s production: the union between figuration and abstraction. This is also the case with other works by the artist from the 1950s and 1960s, such as portraits of his grandchildren. Javier (1955) a Maria Dolores (1955), the series Networks (1959) e Grooves (1959), or the murals in the atrium of the office building of the old Altadis tobacco factory in Seville (1965-1966).

Architecture

The work Architecturean oil on panel, Delhy never exhibited it during his lifetime nor gave it a title. Recently, however, it was seen in the anthological exhibition Delhy at the Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid – chosen as the main image of the communication – and before at the MUSAC in León. The reason he didn’t exhibit it is that it is an unfinished work. This is not exactly a sketch, but rather a newly developed design, although there is a very similar previous drawing of a spiral staircase grid for the Urbis Club in Madrid. The staircase, which was to fill the height between the basement and the first floor, would have a central shaft that would represent a “caryatid woman” with a tendency towards geometrization and of great monumentality which, like the steps, would be painted with vivid primary colors and plates, as if it were a mural. Unfortunately this idea, which could have been the artist’s only one in which he tackled a three-dimensional work, was never realised, as the real estate company did not obtain permission to carry out the expansion project of the Urbis Club , which consisted in the creation of a first floor that did not exist in the original building.

Delhy Tejero, Architecture, 1960. sketch

Delhy Tejero, Caryatid, 1959

Delhy did not even complete another previous work from the late 1950s with which the similarity is evident: the mural to decorate the access walls of the auditorium of the University of Labor in Gijón, this time due to lack of funding. It is characterized by the studied geometric composition and the presence of schematized and monumental figures of classical inspiration that represent the arts and sciences: a caryatid also appears on the far right of this sketch. However, this commission, which he conceived as a mosaic whose execution was entrusted to Santiago Padrós, was highly developed by the artist, even the stencils are preserved.

Delhy Tejero, Sketch for the mural La Ciencia, of the Auditorium of the University of Labor of Gijón, 1959

Welcome to Delhy Tejero upon your return to the Zamora Museum. And that more and more doors of museums, galleries and art centers are opening to female creators.

This text was written by the conference Crossroads: figuration and abstraction in the work of Delhy Tejerodelivered by the author to the Zamora Museum on 10 October as part of the Collection and Heritage cycle.