Gregorio Prieto

On February 18, 1990, the then King Juan Carlos I inaugurated the Gregorio Prieto Museum in Valdepeñas (Ciudad Real). The beauty of this event is that the painter from La Mancha was able to enjoy this endearing moment. Behind that initiative was his Foundation, which now, more than 30 years later, and presided over by María Concepción García-Noblejas, has not hesitated to jump on the bandwagon of modernity and remodel the beautiful 17th century house that houses the great legacy of this universal artist. 
It has been worth the two years necessary for the restoration of this space that houses some 5,000 pieces of Gregorio Prieto himself and his private collection (Picasso, Vázquez Díaz, Alberti...). The Museum exhibits some 400 paintings, drawings and photographs and preserves a more than interesting archive with documents such as letters, those beautiful handwritten words that rarely make us smile when we open the mailbox, because technology has made us forget those good habits. 

Gregorio Prieto, artist of 27, rubbed shoulders, met and befriended the writers and painters of the time. Imagine being able to read the correspondence with the Nobel Vicente Aleixandre, Rosa Chacel, Teresa León, Luis Cernuda, Federico García Lorca, Maruja Mallo, María Zambrano, Concha Espina, Paco Nieva... No, do not imagine because that dream can come true.
This land of vineyards, windmills, those he defended so much, and good people, sometimes forgotten and immortalized thanks to the pen of Cervantes and his noble knight, has seen the birth of great artists. Its landscapes, its sunsets and sunrises, or who knows what, stir sensitive hearts and restless minds. And here is one of our most outstanding characters: avant-garde, innovative, provocative, cultured, daring, solitary... Proud of his origin from La Mancha despite moving early to Madrid and living, in those 20s, his Parisian days and nights, his adventures and misfortunes, his passions and disappointments. Paris, Rome, London... 

The voluntary exile, his return in the 50's. Formation, discovery, travels, disaffection, shadows and lights... Observe his paintings, his colors, his landscapes, his mannequins, what was said and not said... He flew like a free bird and did, as he himself said, whatever he wanted.
Perhaps the person who knows the most about Prieto is the art historian Javier García-Luengo, who has spent years researching his work, his acknowledged homosexuality and eroticism through his paintings at a time when it was taboo and a crime, his religiosity, his personality, his pictorial evolution, his influence... Thanks to people like him, with enthusiasm and dedication, the author is reborn.

Gregorio Prieto passed away at the age of 95 on November 13, 1992. He lived in the Nuestra Señora de la Consolación Residence in his hometown cared for by the Sisters of Charity. At that time, Francisco Creis wrote an article in the newspaper Lanza where he stated that this Museum was "one of the best exponents of generosity and love for a people and for the culture of a region such as La Mancha". May this generosity continue to spread throughout the world so that its name is not lost in oblivion.