Painter, illustrator and teacher · 1896-1960
Painter, illustrator and teacher
Pedro de Guezala García was a painter, illustrator and teacher from La Laguna, active between Modernism and renewed figuration. His work brought together academic training, attention to light and colour, and an iconography of landscape, country women, portraiture and nudes linked to Tenerife.
He was born in San Cristóbal de La Laguna on 7 October 1896. His first artistic training was with the watercolourist Francisco Bonnín; in the 1920s he travelled to Madrid, enrolled at the Higher School of Fine Arts and studied with Joaquín Sorolla and José Aguiar. On returning to Tenerife he continued at the Santa Cruz School of Arts and Crafts.
He was a founding member of Santa Cruz de Tenerife's Círculo de Bellas Artes in 1924 and worked as an illustrator in publications of different Modernist and avant-garde sensibilities. His evolution moved from these early experiments towards realist and academic figuration, with particular attention to women, portraiture, nudes, landscapes and rural Canarian types.
From 1932 he taught Linear and Mechanical Drawing at the Santa Cruz School of Navigation, a post he held until his death. He also taught life drawing at the School of Fine Arts. His work was consolidated through solo exhibitions and pieces such as Bañistas, awarded by the Tenerife Island Council in 1955.
