Lita Cabellut

Lita Cabellut, born in 1961 in Sarinena, Aragon, is a multifaceted Spanish artist who lives and works in The Hague, the Netherlands, where she has been acclaimed Artist of the Year 2021.

Lita grew up in Barcelona, Spain, and lived as a street child until she was adopted at the age of 12. She was then raised in a bourgeois Catalan family that facilitated her access to education. After her first visit to the Museo Nacional del Prado, she fell in love with Goya, Velazquez, Ribera, and Rembrandt and was determined that she would dedicate herself to her passion for art. Lita started to take classical painting technique classes four times each week and had her first exhibition at the age of 17 at the Town Hall of Masnou, Barcelona.

Lita Cabellut moved to the Netherlands at the age of 19, where she studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam from 1982 to 1984 and began her career. As early as 1988, Lita was well-established enough to earn a living solely from her artistic endeavors. After her studies, she continued living and working in the Netherlands and subsequently established her residence in The Hague, where she has since settled.

Over the years, Cabellut has developed a unique technique characterised by large-scale canvases that combine traditional techniques and modern media applications. Considered an "informal figurative painter", the artist developed a contemporary variation of the classic fresco technique and a recognisable personal palette style, creating series of realistic oil paintings on canvas. Beyond her artistic language, social issues and humanity are central themes of Lita Cabellut’s work, which she considers essential to her process and showcases through her series of monumental portraits.

In the autumn of 2020, the Museum de Zwarte Tulp requested to exhibit her series Black Tulip Portraits. The paintings, based on the theme of the "black tulip" and the great masters and thinkers of the Golden Age, make a connection between classical portrait painting and modern techniques, showcasing the range extent of Cabellut’s technique.

Her complete artistic identity, in combination with her torrential force and extraordinary capacity, drives her artistic activities in multiple disciplines and media. Beyond her monumental paintings, her work includes an extraordinary touch for linguistics, sculptures, photography, installations, video, and performance. She has also expanded into opera scenography in the creation of stage, costume, and video design. What guides all these multidisciplinary tools is Lita Cabellut’s poetic sense, at the core of everything she approaches.

Her works have been exhibited in numerous museums around the world, including the Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, South Korea; Museo Arte Contemporanea Sicilia, Catania, Italy; CSMVS, Mumbai, India. Her work is included in the permanent collections of several museums such as Museo Goya Colección IberCaja, Zaragoza, Spain; Museo Arte Contemporanea Sicilia, Catania, Italy; The Fendi Collection, Italy; Museu Europeu d’Art Modern, Fundació Vila Casas, Barcelona, Spain; Théâtre Mogador, Paris, France; Copelouzos, Greece; The RAK Art Foundation, Riffa, Bahrain; The Joop & Janine VandenEnde Foundation and The Paul van Rensch Foundation, the Netherlands.

Image Courtesy of the artist and Opera Gallery. Photo: © Lluc Queralt

SELECTED WORKS

Lita Cabellut, La ilusion del lago, 2020

Mixed media on canvas

250 x 145 cm | 98.4 x 57.1 in