José Gómez Abad

• Name — José Gómez Abad • Born — 29 January 1904 • Birthplace — Pechina, Andalusia, Spain • Died — 13 March 1993 • Occupation — Painter • Movement — Indaliano

José Gómez Abad showed a precocious talent for painting from an early age. At the age of eleven, he enrolled at an art academy in the historic district of Almería and at the Escuela de Artes (where he later became a teacher), although he was self-taught throughout his life.

In 1941, he traveled to Barcelona with six paintings, which he exhibited at the Layetana Gallery. The sale of these paintings enabled him to fully dedicate himself to painting. Subsequent exhibitions in Almería featured themes such as still lifes, flowers, and landscapes. By the 1940s, he already had substantial support in Barcelona, allowing him to exhibit frequently at venues like the Sala Augusta and the Layetana gallery. He organized numerous exhibitions in Barcelona, Almería, and other Spanish cities, earning recognition, including a prize at the National Drawing Exhibition in Granada in 1944.

In 1946, he joined the Indaliano Movement at the invitation of Jesús de Perceval. The first Indaliano Congress took place in 1947 in Pechina, his hometown, leading to the foundation of the Academia Indaliana Artes y Bellas Letras de Almería. He also participated in the inaugural Indaliana exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Madrid in 1947.

An artist whose training and style were largely self-taught, he took an interest in still lifes and became known as the "grape painter". From an early age and throughout his life, he was also fascinated by the rural environment, which he depicted in paintings of the farmhouses of Andarax, the district of La Chanca, the landscape of Níjar and the Tabernas Desert. As a curiosity, he painted two bullfighting costumes and a Virgen de la Mar for the businessman José Artés de Arcos.