MANUEL VIOLA (Zaragoza, 1916 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial, 1987). "Nudes", circa 1975. Mixed media on cardboard. Attached certificate issued by Don Jacobo Viola, son of the artist. Provenance; Atelier of the artist. Measurements: 47 x 67,5 cm. José Viola Gamón adopted the name by which he is known, Manuel Viola, after the Civil War. A member of the El Paso group, his painting is characterised by an informalist and colourist treatment, in line with the avant-garde developed in Spain from the 1950s onwards. He began studying Philosophy and Letters in Barcelona, but was forced to abandon them due to the war. His first drawings date from these years. After the war he went into exile in France, where he wrote for the surrealist poetry magazine "La main à plume". There he began to exhibit his work in the exhibitions of the so-called Spanish School of Paris. He returned to Spain in 1949, and in 1958 his truly personal style began to emerge, and at the same time he joined the avant-garde pictorial group El Paso, to which Antonio Saura, Rafael Canogar, Luis Feito and Manolo Millares, among others, belonged. He began to express himself through abstract painting with a strong expressionist character and great attention to colour. He definitively left behind the figuration that had prevailed until then in his work. Throughout his life he was awarded numerous prizes, such as the Condado de San Jorge Prize, the Lissones Prize (Milan) and the Gold Medal of the City of Saragossa. He exhibited in the most important galleries in Spain and also abroad, in cities such as Oslo, New York, Venice, São Paulo and Houston. While he was still alive, important retrospective exhibitions of his work were held: in 1965 at the Dirección de Bellas Artes de Madrid, in 1971 at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Madrid, in 1972 at the Lonja de Zaragoza, in 1983 at the Armas Gallery in Miami, and in 1986 in Houston. After his death, anthological exhibitions of his work continued to be held in international galleries and museums. Manuel Viola s work can be seen in the Reina Sofía Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in Cologne, the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao, the Guggenheim in New York and Bilbao and the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art in Cuenca, among many others.