Manuel Abelenda Zapata (1899-1957) - Nocturno en el río lerez

Manuel Abelenda 1889-1957

Born into a very humble family, he began with artisanal work before dedicating himself to painting. The only studies related to this art he carried out at the School of Arts and Trades of his hometown from 1903, where he soon stood out and won the modest prizes of the time. With a financial grant provided by the City Council of La Coruña and by the Provincial Council of La Coruña he traveled in 1909 to Madrid, where he joined the teachings of the Circle of Fine Arts. In 1913 he traveled to Rome to study at the Academy of Spain, as a holder of a grant from the provincial council, but he returned to Spain the following year.

In 1923 he married Obdulia Freire Mariñas, a young woman from Oleiros, (La Coruña), where he would reside until his death.

Trajectory

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From those years he carried out numerous exhibitions in Galician cities (La Coruña, Vigo, Ferrol, Santiago, etc.), Madrid and Barcelona, being considered by the critics of the time as one of the first interpreters of Galician landscape. With another grant from the Provincial Council of La Coruña, he traveled to Italy, Switzerland and France in 1930.

The Civil War caught him in Madrid, where he faced a professorship in drawing, and he remained there until 1939, when he returned to La Coruña.

He continued participating successfully in exhibitions (Vigo, 1940; Madrid, 1941; Barcelona, 1942; Oporto, 1942; Bilbao, 1945, etc.) and received the third medal at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts of 1943, for his painting Morning of October from My Studio. He was named a full member of the Provincial Academy of Fine Arts of La Coruña (1941) and corresponding academic of the Royal Galician Academy (1946).

In 1957 he died at his home in Oleiros.

His work

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His work is shown in Europe and America, and indeed, in South American museums there are works of his, as well as in the Madrid Museum of Modern Art and in those of Galicia, such as the Museum of Pontevedra. Notable are Palatine, Roman Forum, Bohemian Triptych, October and Nebula.

Abelenda was unaware of the European innovations of his time. On the contrary, loyal to the landscape of his land, he interprets it with technical methods akin to Impressionism and with a lyrical, intimate feeling, of literary root.