José García y Más was born in 1945 to Sephardic Catalan-Andalusian parents in Santa Cruz de la Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain. When he was 18 years old, he boarded a Norwegian petroleum tanker, which took him around the African continent. He attended art school, the Escuela de Bellas Artes, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In 1970 he left Spain, which was still under the unpopular Franco regime, for the young German democracy and eventually moved to Berlin, where he took a degree in engineering. Since 1980, he has pursued an independent career as an artist, studying at various times in Sweden, England, Italy, and Spain. He and his wife now live and work on the island of Usedom in the Baltic Sea.

These altered circumstances have considerably enhanced García y Más?s productiveness and power of expression. Living at a distance from Berlin and thus viewing the capital more objectively, much of his attention has shifted from major world politics to the cultural and sociopolitical themes of the times. He incorporates every one of them into paintings as genuine as they are large. His social criticism, previously often downright sarcastic, has softened in his current works. It appears in minute details, coming across more as ironic aperçu than as aggressive accusation. The artistic portrayal of a social topic on a large canvas, the incisive depiction of special situations and their aspects calling for a critical response repeatedly coalesces into a fascinating unity that intensely animates his artwork.