Pilar Belmonte (1952) - Figure assise

Pilar Belmonte Useros (Albacete, 1952)

Sitting Figure
Acrylic on paper

Interesting original work by Spanish artist Pilar Belmonte Useros (Albacete, 1952), executed in acrylic on paper and signed in the lower right corner.

The composition depicts a seated male figure, built through a marked simplification of figurative and geometric form. The character is articulated from clearly delimited chromatic surfaces, with virtually no facial features or narrative elements. The reduction of the forms allows the true protagonism to rest on the relationship between figure, space and color.

The work presents a particularly characteristic palette, dominated by blues and cool tones that contrast with the magenta horizontal bands and the dark areas. The background is organized through large fields of color superimposed to generate depth without relying on traditional perspective. The result is situated within contemporary figurative art with a synthetic and geometric tendency, akin in certain aspects to graphic language and color field, while maintaining a clearly recognizable human figure.

This emphasis on color is particularly significant within Pilar Belmonte’s career. The artist herself has pointed to light and color as fundamental elements of her pictorial research, while the Museu d'Art Contemporani Vicente Aguilera Cerni also highlights both elements as essential axes of her production.

About the artist

Pilar Belmonte Useros was born in Albacete in 1952 and has lived in Valencia since 1968. She began her training at the School of Fine Arts San Carlos in Valencia and later developed a solid academic and international career. She holds a Doctorate in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid, received a Fulbright/Banco de Bilbao grant to expand studies for two years in the United States, and earned a Master of Arts from New York University in 1981.

Her career as a exhibitor began in 1971 and has spanned more than five decades, with more than a hundred exhibitions and appearances in cities such as Madrid, Valencia, Bilbao, London, New York, Paris, Venice and other European and American towns. In 2014 a retrospective exhibition was organized devoted to roughly fifty years of her production.

Her artistic research has traversed different languages and processes: oil, acrylic, wax crayons, collage, screen printing, mixed media, installations and contemporary stained glass. During the seventies she mainly started from figuration — landscape, human figure and objects — and progressively simplified and abstracted the forms. Her stay in New York between the late seventies and early eighties was especially important in this evolution.

Since the nineties she has also developed significant activity related to light, color and architecture through contemporary stained glass projects, collaborating, among others, with specialized German studios. Thus her career combines painterly creation, chromatic research, teaching and artistic projects linked to architectural space.

Condition report

The work is in good overall conservation condition, taking into account its nature and age. It is framed and protected behind glass.

The glass is dirty and shows signs of aging, so a cleaning would be advisable to improve the presentation and appreciation of the work.

The frame shows signs of use and may have scuffs, small losses, bumps or other imperfections inherent to time. The frame is provided free of charge as a complement to the work and is not part of its valuation, so any possible damage to it will not be a cause for complaint.

The specific condition of the work, the glass and the frame can be viewed in detail in the photographs, which are part of the description.