Bull With Raised Leg / José Luis Rey Vila (1910-1983) / Ink And Wash On Pape

osé Luis Rey Vila (1910–1983) captures in this ink and wash on paper a bull with a powerful and unexpected gesture. Its raised paw, its body seemingly unbalanced, this disturbing posture attracts the eye and questions. Here, the artist does not seek a fixed aesthetic, but rather the raw moment, the violence contained in the movement. The refined composition and minimalist background focus all the attention on the beast. The dark washes, the frank brushstrokes, the shapes that blend or oppose each other: each detail reinforces the tension, the brute force, the instinct of the animal. The bull seems caught in a vital surge, both ready to charge and already struggling against the air.

30 x 37 visible
47 x 55 with frame very carefully framed
This work, signed with the artist's stamp at the bottom right, carries within it Rey Vila's fever for drawing, his taste for direct expression and free gesture. It offers a rare and magnetic vision of an eternal theme, between savagery and nobility, energy and fragility. Through this bull, the artist offers us much more than a simple scene: he delivers to us a fragment of an animal soul, a vibrant and indomitable image.

José Luis Rey Vila (1910–1983) Born in Cadiz, José Luis Rey Vila crossed the 20th century as an artist who bore witness to his time, both committed and deeply sensitive to the expressive power of drawing. He began his artistic career in Spain, where he received academic training before engaging in militant art and poster design during the Civil War. Under the pseudonym SIM, he produced numerous propaganda drawings and lithographs, marking the memory of this tragic period with his own style. Exiled in Paris at the end of the 1930s, Rey Vila continued his work as a draftsman and illustrator. His works demonstrate a vital energy and graphic mastery that transcend the themes addressed: scenes of war, daily life, but also the powerful and emblematic figure of the bull. Bullfighting, rooted in Spanish culture, appears as a recurring motif in Rey Vila's work. His inks and washes, in a nervous and refined style, capture the dramatic tension of the animal, a figure of struggle and power. In his representations of bulls, it is not simply a question of depicting a folkloric spectacle, but rather of exploring the brute force and tragic destiny of the animal, on the border between combat and sacrifice. Rey Vila's artistic gesture thus captures all the energy, vitality and fragility of the bull, creating images of rare intensity. His work, both rooted in the tumults of history and faithful to a Spanish artistic tradition, leaves us today a vibrant testimony to the human condition and the untamed force of nature.
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