Biography and Works of Amable Arias

BIOGRAPHY

A native of the province of León, he spent most of his life in San Sebastián. As a 9-year-old boy, in 1936 he suffered an accident, which forced him to rely on crutches for the rest of his life. The painter's family was always marked by economic difficulties; this fact, coupled with a sad and lonely childhood as a sick child, marked the art of Amable.

Almost completely self-taught, he acquired some knowledge of painting technique from Ascensio Martiarena, at whose academy he studied. He painted his first oil paintings in 1956, and in 1958 he held his first solo exhibition. Between 1966 and 1970, Arias in the company of Sistiaga promoted the Gaur Group, composed of Rafael Ruiz Balerdi, Sistiaga, José Luis Zumeta, Amable himself and the sculptors Néstor Basterretxea, Jorge Oteiza, Chillida and Remigio Mendiburu.

In 1985 the San Telmo Museum (San Sebastian) dedicated a retrospective to him. From the second half of the nineties there has been a growing recognition of the value of his work, recognition that did not occur during the artist's lifetime.