Valencia is, in between 1870 i 1920, one of the most prolific and influential artistic centers of its time. A large number of painters are born and trained in the city, of which only a small plot is remembered today, the so-called great teachers of the Valencian school, despite the fact that most of them resided outside their hometown.
From this very wide catalog of painters from the mid-19th and 20th centuries, we barely know the biographies of a few, and one of the puzzles is knowing how they managed to survive in such a competitive and saturated environment of professionals. The option for a large majority was to move to other cities and countries, mainly in Europe and America. Teaching was one of the professional paths that many opted for, but when it depended exclusively on the commercialization of works in an art market as narrow as local, the life of a large part of these artists was nothing short of heroic
In a context as creative as the Valencian one, we would say that the artistic vocation was in some cases a genetic component that was easily transmitted from parents to children. Such is the case of the Pinazos, which constitute an example that undoubtedly stands out among the various artistic families of the city, like the Capuz, the Lopezes, the Benlliure, the Sorollas or the Manaut Vigliettis, among others.
There is a practical component to this phenomenon of the transmission of the profession, of continuity or inheritance of a tradition - and also of vocation. Coexistence and familiarity with artistic creation generate a predisposition that favors the continuity of the profession, as exemplified by the case of the Pinazo clan that is now presented. The great master Ignacio Pinazo and Camarlench (1849-1916) he had two sons who dedicated themselves to art, José and Ignacio Pinazo Martínez, the first painter and the second sculptor, although he also practiced painting and was a singer. Although Ignacio Pinazo Martínez is a great sculptor, it has now been chosen to show the work of Marisa Pinazo Mitjans (1912-1990), daughter of José Pinazo Martínez (1879-1933), since it is she who gives continuity to pictorial art within the third generation.
Confronting or sequentially showing the art of three generations forces us to interpret the existing relationships, the gradual evolution of each of them, as well as persistences that are logically more accentuated between father and son than between grandfather and niece. Even if the grandfather's powerful personality is the object of veneration, the art of each follows its course and the creations of the three speak of an overcoming of models and stylistic evolutions that, as a whole, they make it possible to take a suggestive route that takes us from naturalism and modernism to art deco.
The stimuli that the paternal models provoke in the different generations create connections or links that are clearly perceived between the works of Ignacio Pinazo and the creations of José Pinazo from his initial phase, in the same way that happens between certain paintings by Marisa Pinazo and creations by José Pinazo. A brief selection and comparison of works of different genres allow us to clearly appreciate this.
