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BIOGRAPHY

SEBASTIÁN CLOSA LEÓN 1927- 2020

Sebastián Closa León was born in Granada on March 6, 1927. He was the first son and the middle of three siblings.

When he was still a child, his family moved to the International Zone of Tangier, which was then under French administration. This may have been the happiest time of Sebastián’s childhood, as he often recalled humorous anecdotes from Tangier in conversations about his early years.

After a few years, his family decided to return to Spain. They settled in Andújar, a town in the province of Jaén, where they had family support in the area. Sebastián lived peacefully in Andújar until he was nine.

When the Spanish Civil War broke out, Sebastián and his family sought refuge in Granada. At the end of the conflict, his father was imprisoned and sentenced to death. This period and the ensuing postwar years profoundly affected Sebastián, as themes of suffering, injustice, and hunger haunted him throughout his life, themes he artistically represented in several works of the fantasy genre.

EDUCATION

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During his teenage years, Sebastián began working as a messenger at the Bank of Spain’s office in Granada. With the goal of increasing his income, Sebastián set out to become a bullfighter and started attending bullfighting events. During one such event, while he was sketching the bulls, he met Don Gabriel Morcillo, a painting professor at the School of Arts and Crafts in Granada. Seeing Sebastián’s potential as a painter, Don Gabriel, with his customary rhetoric, invited him to his painting classes with the phrase, “Painting can also put food on the table, and brushes don’t gore.”

Sebastián officially studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Granada from 1946 to 1948. In his second year, he won third prize at the National Exhibition of Education and Leisure in Madrid. Over the following years, he continued to earn various diplomas and distinctions in national art events.

INTERNATIONAL PAINTER

In 1951, at the age of 24, Sebastián held his first solo exhibition in Granada. The event was exceptionally well-received, and it was then that Sebastián seriously considered leaving his job at the bank to make a living as a painter, specifically as a portrait artist using oil as his medium.

Two years later, in 1953, he moved with his entire family to Tangier. There, he presented several exhibitions in Tangier and one in Casablanca. The public’s response was excellent, and he began forming friendships with European diplomats who, in addition to commissioning portraits from him, recommended him as a painter in their home countries.

In this way, Sebastián began a lengthy journey through various locations in France, painting commissioned portraits. In 1955, he arrived in England to continue painting portraits for several more months. He eventually decided to settle in the city of Birmingham, where he started teaching art at Wylde Green College. Later, he transferred to Greenmore College, continuing his teaching career until 1969.

SEBASTIÁN DURING THE 70s

In the 1970s, Sebastián returned to Spain and began a new artistic phase characterized by his depictions of everyday scenes from the Basque Country. He held numerous exhibitions in Bilbao and San Sebastián, although he always returned to his hometown and to Andalusia to exhibit complete collections from each of his creative periods.

In the middle of this decade, Sebastián broadened his horizons and traveled to Japan, spending several months in the northern part of the country painting everyday scenes and its people. In 1979, he returned to Granada to present a full exhibition dedicated to Japan.

“With this exhibition, I do not intend to give the impression of having captured the spirit and beauty of a country like Japan; for that, it would be necessary to paint from north to south, depicting its marvelous landscapes and ways of life, which would add up to a few hundred works. Nonetheless, it was an unforgettable experience, and in these canvases I present to you (the result of months of intense work), I want to share some impressions of my journey through the land of the rising sun.” (S. Closa, 1979).

RETURN TO GRANADA

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In the early 1980s, Sebastián traveled to South America for the first time. Once again, commissioned portraits offered him the opportunity to broaden his horizons and discover new cultures. Notable among his works from this trip were portraits of various figures associated with Mexico’s political and industrial spheres at that time.

Later, Sebastián returned to Japan, and after presenting several exhibitions in Tokyo, he ultimately decided to settle in Granada in 1985 and start his own family.

During the initial years, he balanced painting with some exhibitions and his own painting academy. Over time, however, Sebastián dedicated increasing amounts of time in his studio, refining his technique and striving for perfection in still life painting. Nevertheless, he remained active in Granada’s art scene, participating in solo exhibitions and collaborating in events with other local painters. He also continued to take on commissioned portraits, though he turned down many, which allowed him to visit new countries like Switzerland and Thailand.

In 2006, Sebastián retired from painting due to health issues, thus concluding his extensive and productive artistic career.