Nike: Half a Century of Spanish Advertising

The painter who signed as "Nike"

After the Civil War, Gil Guerra signed as "Nike" a large body of advertising work for the agency Hijos de Valeriano Pérez. His Anís de la Asturiana image first appears in the magazine FOTOS in November 1944 and ran on the back page of ABC from 1950 to 1998, two years after his death. The archive holds 196 originals kept by the family and 17 pieces documented in other sources: gouaches and inks for the press, posters and labels for Philips, Coty, Pepsi-Cola, Movado and Coñac Peinado.

Gil Guerra worked three professions at once: painting, teaching —he was a drawing professor for four decades— and advertising. While he signed as "Nike" for half of Spain, his studio turned out commissioned portraits and still lifes, costumbrista scenes, figures and landscapes, sold to collectors in Spain and abroad. The same hand that drew the ads everyone remembered signed the paintings that hang today in private collections.

Who "Nike" was and how long the Anís de la Asturiana campaign ran →

See his easel work →