(Rosa), 2000. Oil on wood. 180 x 120 cm (2010) Peinture par Maria Jose Aguilar Gutierrez

Maria José Aguilar Gutierrez

Introduction
I have been told that, since I learned to express myself verbally, I have shown a powerful, fervent and unshakeable desire to paint. Perhaps I will never really know why.

I remember my earliest memories, dreaming about having the knowledge and tools necessary to allow me the daily exercise of this most difficult but simultaneously beautiful profession.

Ever embellished given the manifest genius and sensitivity of the human being, always feeling fortunate to have the joy of contemplating, aspiring and embedding myself in the works of others, even feeling myself small and insignificant.

I do not paint because I think that I have something to contribute or to state; I do it simply because it is something I need to do, like breathing.
With all the solitude, failures and sacrifices which it brings, I could not, nor would I want to, stop doing what I do.
I am within it; painting is my air.
My path, the pursuit of a dream: to express what I see with the heart versus the floundering of mere hands which infinitely impoverish the vision.

Maria José Aguilar
Sevilla, February 2005


Career path
Maria José Aguilar was born in the city of Sevilla in 1964, in the centre’s San Lorenzo district. She spent her childhood and early adolescence among her native city, the bay of Cadiz and the Jaén mountains. From early on she showed artistic leanings and gifts fed by appropriate surroundings. She grew up with a passion for the great Spanish masters, especially Velázquez, Murillo, Zurbarán and Valdés Leal, etc.


1983:
- She began her university studies in Sevilla’s School of Fine Arts.
- In November she travelled to Italy, where a dream came true for the first time; that of observing up close the work of great Italian masters.


1984:
- She decided to commence parallel studies in Sevilla’s Arts and Crafts School, with an eagerness to expand her knowledge in other areas of art.


1988:
- She earned her degree in Painting from Universidad Hispalense of Sevilla.
- Later she would spend four months travelling in Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Morocco, returning with a determination to continue her tertiary studies. In December she travelled to Vancouver (Canada) for the first time.


1989:
- In the spring she visited Holland, specifically the city of Amsterdam, a point of continuous return for her in subsequent years. She felt an undeniable admiration for the meticulousness of the Flemish masters which, together with painting and Sevillian-Barroque sculpture, would set the foundations for her later production. Two artists would leave a lasting impression on her during this first trip: Rembrandt and van Gogh.
- In July she passed her oral exams to earn the title of Adjunct Professor for Bachelor’s in Drawing.
- That summer, once again in Canada (from Vancouver), she began an extended trip through the Province British Columbia and Alberta, where in addition to admiring the matchless be...

• Nationalité: ESPAGNE
• Date de naissance : 1964
• Domaines artistiques:
• Groupes: Artistes Contemporains Espagnols