Calle de Gutiérrez Solana

José Gutiérrez-Solana (Madrid, 1886-1945) was a painter, engraver and writer, the author of his country’s bleakest portrait. He was born during the Madrid carnival, and carnival haunted him all his life: masks, procession skeletons, wax mannequins, beggars and Castilian villages frozen in time. They called him the painter of black Spain, and he gave that title to one of his own books. His work is ruled by dense blacks and ochres, heirs to Goya’s dark paintings. He also wrote with force. In Madrid callejero he walked the taverns, flea markets and poor quarters with the same raw eye he brought to the canvas. He was a regular at the Café de Pombo gathering, to which he devoted a famous painting where he portrayed himself among the company. The street belongs to the El Viso colony, laid out in the 1930s as a rationalist neighbourhood of white villas and gardens. Solana died on 24 June, the feast of Saint John.