Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Prieto Manuel Benitez


Prieto Manuel Benitez (1912 - 1991) was a Spanish painter and medal sculptor.
Manolo Prieto in El-Puerto-de-Santa-María, 1929
His most well-known graphic work is a silhouette of the Osborne Bull (1956), originally an Osborne Group advertisement but so successful that it has become the “cultural and artistic heritage of the peoples of Spain” according to a court ruling.
He is also the author of various designs of medals, such as those found in the municipal museum of his hometown El Puerto de Santa María, some with erotic themes.
Prieto was also a recognized militant of the Spanish Communist Party. During the Spanish Civil War, he supported the Republican side and collaborated with drawings for Altavoz del Pueblo and newspaper El Sol, in addition to being artistic director of a newspaper for the V Army Corps. 
Later, during Franco's dictatorship, he illustrated articles in the national press under the pseudonym Teté, worked for theNational Factory of Currency and Stamps as sculptor of medals, and received numerous prizes. He achieved great recognition for his designs of bullfight posters.
The Junta de Andalucía registered its famous design of the bull, of which up to five hundred were distributed alongside hundreds of roads throughout the country.
Manolo Prieto once expressed his disappointment because, after all he had done in artistic matters, of the very different registers he had played in the plastic creation, he will end up being known, generally, as the author of the bull on the road.

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