José Guerrero

In good condition aside from overall bubbling to canvas. Craquelure at upper left , lower left and upper right corner and also upper and bottom center at edge possibly as a result of slack canvas and frame abrasion. Area of faint pigment seperation in orange cter left. Some spots of surface dirt lower right. Under UV: no apparent signs of in-paint.
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After hostilities ended in Europe in the middle of 1945, Jose Guerrero was able to extend his art studies in Paris; in ensuing years he visited and studied in several other cities, including Rome.  In 1949 he would sail to the United States, settling in New York where he became associated, socially and stylistically, with the Abstract Expressionists.
Ines Vallejo (who is preparing the catalogue raisonné of the artist's work, with Yolanda Romero) places this painting among those Guerrero executed in Rome in 1948: 'Observing the city's great buildings and ruins... this work represents Guerrero's  break with his academic training and everything he learned in his European travels before immersing himself in the freedom of expression that he encountered in American painting.'
In an email dated 19 August 2007, Ines Vallejo provided more precise information about this work: the composition was probably painted in 1949 or 1950, in the United States, on top of one painted in Rome in 1948 and exhibited in St. George's Gallery, London (no. 13, with the title 'Pigeons, Rome'), in 1949 prior to the artist's emigration to the Untied States later that year.