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Virxilio Vieitez


Biography

Virxilio Vieitez was born in Soutelo de Montes (Pontevedra, Spain) in 1930. When he was 18 years of age, he travelled to the Pyrenees in the Spanish region of Aragon, where he worked as a mechanic and purchased his first camera. He then moved to Catalonia and worked in the town of Palamós as assistant to the photographer Juli Pallí, who taught him the secrets of his trade. In 1955, he returned to Galicia and opened a photographic studio in the town where he was born, working for customers across the Terra de Montes district and portraying entire generations of local people, especially from the beginning of the 1960s, when it became mandatory for identity documents to bear a photograph. In only a short time, he became the most popular photographer for ceremonies, weddings, portraits, litigations, funerals and christenings and his camera recorded the most important moments of the lives of the people and families in his local area. Most of Vieitez's works are in black and white; however, after the 1970s he also used colour photography. Although his most prolific stage came in later decades, Virxilio Vieitez continued to work as a photographer until the end of the 1980s, combining his work with other jobs. In 2006, his health started to deteriorate and he passed away in Soutelo de Montes, the town where he was born, on 15 July 2008.

Individual exhibitions

1997 Enriqueta Vieitez organised the first Virxilio Vieitez exhibition in Soutelo de Montes, Pontevedra
1998-2001 Virxilio Vieitez, 1955-1965, VIII Fotobiennal, Vigo, Spain, 1998; Museo do Pobo Galego, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 1999; ‘Encontros da Imagen de Braga’, Fundação Cupertino de Miranda, Famalicão, Portugal, 1999; Canal de Isabel II, Madrid, Spain, 1999; Pazo da Cultura, Pontevedra, Spain, 1999; Museum of El Bierzo, Ponferrada, Spain, 2000; Fundación Caixa Galicia, A Coruña, Spain, 2001; Centro Torrente Ballester, Ferrol, Spain, 2001/ Convento de San Francisco, Ourense, Spain, 2001/ Instituto Jovellanos, Gijón, Spain, 2001/ ‘Explorafoto’, Patio de Escuelas de la Universidad, Salamanca, Spain, 2001
1999 Virxilio Vieitez, Galerie VU’, Paris, France
2003 Virxilio Vieitez. Álbum, FOAM, Amsterdam, Holland, 2003
2003 Virxilio Vieitez. Fotografías, Cámara Municipal, Caldas da Rainha, Portugal
2006 Virxilio Vieitez. Retrospective Exhibition, IV Xavier Miserachs Photography Biennial, Municipal Theatre, Palafrugell, Spain
2006 Virxilio Vieitez. FNAC, Madrid, Spain. Travelling exhibition (Madrid, Bilbao)
2009 Sueños por encargo. Juana de Aizpuru Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2009 Historias de una vida. Centre d’Arts d’Escaldes-Engordany, Andorra 

Collective exhibitions

1999 150 Years of Photography in Spain, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid. Organiser: Publio López Mondejar. Travelling exhibition (Oaxaca, Mexico City, Oporto, Salamanca, Manila, Budapest, Valencia)
1999 Collezionismi, la collezione della Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena, Italy
1999 Rendez-vous de l’Histoire, Blois, France
2000 PHotoEspaña 2000. Spain yesterday and today: scenarios, customs and protagonists of a century, MNCARS, Madrid, Spain. Travelling exhibition (Jaén, Vitoria, La Coruña)
2000 Private Diaries, Centre Cultural Fundació “la Caixa”, Granollers. Travelling exhibition (Vic, Oviedo)
2001 Graphic memory of Spanish immigration, BBVA, Madrid. Travelling exhibition (Europe, Ibero-America)
2001 The keys to the 20th century, Art and Science Museum, Valencia, Spain
2001 VU’ à la Fnac. 15 ans de l’Agence VU’, Fnac, Paris, France 
2002 The Spirit of Family, Photographic Centre, Skopelos, Greece
2002-2004 Alter Ego. Antropologies involuntaires, Mundaneum Museum, Mons, Bélgica/Jeu de Paume - Site Sully, Paris, 2003/Palma de Mallorca, 2003/FOAM, Amsterdam, Holland
2003-2004 Les Choix d’Henri Cartier-Bresson, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France/ Al gusto de Cartier–Bresson, CaixaForum, Barcelona, ,Spain, 2004
2003 Le pire est à venir. Images contemporaines du monde, Musée Nicéphore Niépce, Chalon-sur-Saone, France
2003 Uniques, Galerie VU’, Paris, France
2004 O feito fotografico. Colección fotográfica do Concello de Vigo 1984–2000, MARCO, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vigo, Spain
2004 Photography and Art. Variations in Spain 1900-1980, MARCO, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vigo, Spain; PhotoEspaña, Cultural Centre of La Villa, Madrid, Spain; CAAM Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas, Spain
2004 La Collection Ordóñez Falcón - Une passion partagée, Le Botanique, Brussels, Belgium
2004-2005 The Ecstasy of Things, Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Switzerland/L’estasi delle cose nell'arte, Spazio Oberdan, Milan, Italy
2004 La alegría de mis sueños, I International Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Art of Seville, Monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas de la Isla de La Cartuja, Seville, Spain
2004 Colecção Fotográfica do Concello de Vigo, Portuguese Photography Centre, Oporto, Portugal
2005 Human landscape, VI Encounters of African Photography of Bamako, Musée National du Mali, Bamako, Mali
2006 History of photography in Spain, Fundación Caixa Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
2006 Photograpidsme, Galerie VU’, Paris, France
2007 Rencontres d’Arles 2007, Arles, France
2009 A Little History of Photography, CGAC, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
2010 Uniques, Galerie VU’, Paris, France 

Monographic publications

Manuel Sendón, Xosé Luis Suárez Canal. Virxilio Vieitez. Álbum, ed. Centro de Estudios Fotográficos, Vigo, 1998
Joan Fontcuberta, José Luis Canal, Manuel Sendón, Marcial Gondar. Virxilio Vieitez. O Retrato, ed. Universidade de Vigo, Grupo de Investigacións Fotográficas, 2000
Virxilio Vieitez. Magazine Photovision No. 29 (monographic issue), IG Fotoeditor, Utrera, Seville, 2000
Laura Terré. Virxilio Vieitez, Col. Photobolsillo, La Fábrica Editorial, Madrid, 2008 

Collective publications

Diarios íntimos (exhibition catalogue), ed. Fundació “la Caixa”, Barcelona, 2000
España Ayer y Hoy: escenarios, costumbres y protagonistas de un siglo, ed. España Nuevo Milenio, Madrid, 2000
Horacio Fernández et al. Fotografía y Arte. Variaciones en España 1900-1980 (exhibition catalogue MARCO, Vigo, CAAM, Las Palmas), La Fábrica Editorial, Madrid, 2004
Le choix d'Henri Cartier-Bresson (exhibition catalogue), ed. HCB Foundation, 2003 /ed. Fundació “la Caixa”, 2004
Publio López Mondejar. Historia de la fotografía en España, Barcelona, ed. Lunwerg, 2005
Magazine Club Cultura 11 (photographic report travelling exhibition FNAC), FNAC, Madrid, 2006
Joelle Bolloch. Post mortem, Col. Photo Poche, ed. Actes Sud, Paris, 2007
Memoria gráfica de la emigración española, ed. Ministry of Employment and Immigration, Madrid, 2009 

Documentaries

José Luis López Linares. Virxilio Vieitez. Más allá del oficio, Cultural.es, RTVE, 2005
[Included in the exhibition]