Prieto Manuel Benitez (1912 - 1991) was a Spanish painter
and medal sculptor.
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| 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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