he renowned Painter Robert Barnete is considered by the critics to be the Goya of the 20th Century. Barnete doesn't just paint horses standing in fields, his paintings are an explosion of movement ... lively, impetuous and at times dramatic. He has cultivated his passion over the years by living in the desert with the Bedouins and Tuaregs.

Born in New York City he graduated Art School at the age of seventeen and having acquired a great interest in Spanish and Mexican art went on to finish his studies of the University of Mexico. Influenced artistically and personally by the great muralist Diego Rivera he travelled extensively through Mexico, Yucatan. The Central American Jungles and Panama. He continued to paint and had several successful exhibitions in Mexico City.

In the forties Barnete went to Paris to live and continue to study. After two years in Paris the strong impression left by his studies in Mexico took him to Spain, which was to become his home materially and artistically for the next twenty-eight years. His love of movement as a Painter was to find expression particularly in the theme of the Spanish Dance. His paintings of Spanish Folklore themes earned him recognition world-wide and particularly from the Spanish Government, who Knighted him in 1966 for his contribution to Spanish Art and Culture. His wild scenes of flamenco dancers, moody sensitive oils that, as art critics have said "with burning truth capture the very marrow of Spain".

In the sixties, Hollywood came to Spain in the form of film production. Famous Film people became fans of Barnete ...Producers Jack Warner and Ted Richmond. Actors/Actresses... Broderick Crawford, Victor Mature, Arthur Kennedy, John Dereck, Avo Gardner, Omar Shariff, Ursula Andress all bought Barnete paintings ...... The famed Maestro Dimitri Tiomkin and Author Ernest Hemmingway were also fans of Barnete.

While travelling through Spain, Barnete began visiting Tangier and ultimately lived there for many years .... soon the theme of Arab life and particularly The Desert with the Bedouin and his horse, attracted Barnete and they become more and more prominent in his exhibition ...

During the late sixties and the seventies Barnete traveled throughout the Middle-East concentrating his painting more on the Arabian horse .... Paintings of his began to find their way into collections of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, King Hassan of Morocco and King Hussein and Crown Prince Hussain of Jordan.

Traveling and living in the Desert with the Bedouin had a profound effect on Barnete, changing his way of life and this is another story .... However, he continued to paint and his painting found their way into the collections of more famous people such as Doris Duke, Barbara Hutton, Henry Kissinger, The Maharaja of Jaipur, Adnan Kassogi and various European and Japanese Industrialists.

Robert Barnete passed away in 2006 in London.