Jean Salabet

Juan Bayón Salado, Bay-Sala, J. Bayon, J.B., Jean Salabet (1913-1995)

A Biscayan artist, Juan Bayón Salado, was born in Logroño on June 24th, 1913. He died in Bilbao on April 2nd, 1995.

In 1918 he moved to Bilbao. In the early 1930s, he installed his easel at the Bilbao Arenal, where he painted and raffled his paintings among the attendees in order to help his parents. At the time he used to sign as Bayón, and soon after he became a benchmark in the area.

In 1941 he celebrated his first exhibition in Bilbao and a year later he exhibited in Zaragoza, where for the first time he used the pseudonym Bay Sala as signature of his works; that same year he also exhibited his works in Logroño and Bilbao. In 1943 he attended the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes with the painting Puerto de Motrico and held exhibitions in Barcelona and Bilbao. Two years later his work La Mina Abandonada was present at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes. That same year he presented himself at the Primera Exposición Provincial de Bellas Artes in Bilbao with the works Riberas Frondosas and La Mina Abandonada and he obtained the Excmo. Ayuntamiento de Bilbao's gold medal. From that date onwards he hasn't participated in any other contest.

In 1945 he was a founding partner of the Asociación Artística Vizcaína. In 1948 he participated in the exhibition "35 Paisajes Vascos" at the Witcomb Gallery in Buenos Aires; also making his presentation in Madrid. In the spring of 1950 he set off for Paris, where he settled his residence until the end of 1969 in search of the roots of Impressionism. During those twenty years, as Manuel Lumbreras indicates, he:

"exhibits regularly at the Roussard Gallery in Paris, as well as at the Salon Cano in Madrid and at the former Sala Arte of Bilbao. He is summoned from Buenos Aires and Tokyo and he is selected, along with 35 other artists, to cover the 16th and 17th editions of the Salon de Toile in Paris, together with such eminent artists as Cocteau, Dalí, Dufy, Picasso, Utrillo and Vlaminck, among others. His works become part of the most important international collections around the world."

In 1968 he held exhibitions in Tokyo and Paris. A year later, he returned for good to Bilbao, where he regularly held exhibitions, as well as in Madrid and Barcelona; he also spent long periods painting in Holland, France, Italy, USSR, Belgium and Ireland.

In 1985 he was invited to the exhibition "Maestros Actuales de la Pintura Española" for the inauguration of The Embassy gallery in Miami, Florida. In 1991 he was appointed Honorary Fellow of the Asociación Artística Vizcaína. His works are in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao and in the Museo San Telmo of San Sebastián, among others.

After his death in 1995, his ashes were scattered at the foot of Nuestra Señora de la Antigua, in the Txarlazo, a place, very close to his residence of Amurrio, which overlooks the valley of Orduña that he painted so many times.

Sources include:
Enciclopedia AuñamendiDictionnaire des Peintres a Montmartre (pp.55-56 ...He signed Salabet, Bay Sala and Bayon)Legacy Copyright Jean SalabetCatalogue Galeria Bay-Sal (J. Salabet- Pseudonym of J. Bay-Sala)