|
Juan Bautista Nieto was born in Lora del Rio, near Seville in 1963. The family moved to Seville because of the professional needs of his father, a doctor of medicine. There he pursued his childhood studies and guided by his father, was encouraged from a very early age to become a doctor. However, every day on his way to school he passed a professional painter’s studio and through the window observed the artist at work. Thus began his secret fascination for painting and drawing which he suppressed because of the family’s pressure to follow his father’s profession.He studied medicine first which later was to prove a formative influence on his understanding and appreciation of the human anatomy. On the death of his father, Nieto made a milestone decision giving up medicine in favour of his secret passion for painting and drawing. In earnest he began to draw and paint, first privately then in the Fine Arts Faculty of Seville. Subsequently he travelled to Madrid, where he visited and met the main exponents of Spanish Realism such as Toral, López and Naranjo.
His work presents an exaggerated obsession with recreating a reality which reaches beyond the precise representation of a photograph. He transcends the theme and concept of hyperrealism using it as a vehicle to take us onto another level wherein he achieves an extraordinary kind of intensity which paradoxically creates a distinct feeling of unreality. His technique is equally obsessive and both demanding and exhaustive. In common with other hyperrealist painters he produces very few paintings each year. His large works take between six to nine months to complete. With justification Nieto is regarded within Spanish Art circles as one of the foremost exponents of hyperrealism in Spain today. His works are in constant demand by museum curators throughout Spain and as a consequence he has been exhibited and admired alongside the likes of Picasso, Dali and Botero.
|
