Sagunto exhibits 28 unseen paintings by three Valencian artists
The Fundación Bancaja foundation has opened “Geografías del color” (Landscapes of Colour) in Sagunto, with 28 previously unseen oil paintings by three Valencian artists, free to visit until 31 January 2027.
Sagunto has a new free cultural offer right in its old town until January. The Fundación Bancaja foundation has opened the exhibition “Geografías del color” (“Landscapes of Colour”) at the Sala de Exposiciones Glorieta (an exhibition hall), close to the Roman Theatre and the castle, with 28 oil paintings by three Valencian artists that have never been shown to the public before: Luis Giner Bueno, Vicente García Ferrando and Vicente Fillol Roig. The hall, at Plaza Cronista Chabret, 6, is open Tuesday to Saturday in the afternoon, from 5pm to 9pm, with free entry until 31 January 2027.
All the paintings belong to the foundation's own art collection and were made over almost twenty years, between 1965 and 1983. Before reaching Sagunto, the collection travelled to the Casa Garcerán hall in Segorbe (a town in Castellón province), where it could be seen from 16 July to 30 August 2026. Taken together, the exhibition offers three different ways of reading the Valencian countryside and coast in the middle decades of the last century, ranging from the luminous, Sorolla-influenced roots to much more personal styles.
Of the three, Giner Bueno stays closest to that impressionist root: born in Godella in 1935 and linked to the so-called Godella School (a group of local painters), he studied in Valencia and Paris thanks to a 1950s scholarship. His paintings favour quick brushwork and very bright colours, with beaches, fishing scenes, festivals, streets and interiors as recurring subjects.
García Ferrando, for his part, was born in Valencia in 1930 and gave up painting for several years before returning to it in 1959. From then on the Valencian countryside, with its crops, olive and almond trees and inland landscapes, became almost his only subject, worked more through colour than through drawing; he himself summed up his approach as a “landscape expressionism”.
The third artist, Vicente Fillol Roig, was born in Valencia in 1923 and died in Paris in 2021. At just twenty-six he set up Grupo los 7 (“Group of 7”), formed to shake up Valencian painting at the time, and in 1956 he moved to France on two scholarships from the French government. Once in Paris his work shifted toward a naive, primitive style of expressionism, somewhere between reality, imagination and everyday life.
Saggas, Sagunto's gas regasification plant, backs the exhibition under a renewed agreement with Fundación Bancaja to support culture in the Camp de Morvedre district. The agreement goes beyond lending space: it also funds guided outings and art mediation sessions for schoolchildren and older people, part of the company's social responsibility programme.
The foundation behind the show actually started out as a bank: Fundación Bancaja grew out of a savings bank founded in 1878 and only became a charitable foundation in 2012, when its banking business was nationalised. The Sala Glorieta itself is part of that reshaped cultural arm, now separate from that banking past.
The person currently running that cultural activity in the district is architect Belén Genovés, who has led the foundation's Delegate Commission for Camp de Morvedre since July 2026, after being elected unanimously by the board, as El Periódico de Aquí reported at the time. The same commission also runs, alongside the painting exhibitions, the annual Autumn Photography Salon, whose 47th edition this year gathered 39 collections from 24 photographers and was won by Antonio Atanasio Rincón, as El Periódico de Aquí also reported in September.
Families visiting with children will also find a free workshop for ages 7 to 12, along with guided tours led by an art expert for those who prefer visiting with some explanation. Entry is free throughout opening hours.
According to El Periódico de Aquí, with additional information from Fundación Bancaja, Wikipedia and Saggas.