After a year-long period and halfway to completion, the paintings were held to be controversial by Church officials and works were suspended sine die.

Despite their completion in 1984, the paintings were publicly unveiled and put on show only in September 2009, after an agreement was finally reached with the veteran artist.

[3] Towards the end of that decade, he created two of his best known works: La Paloma de Paz (Peace Dove), initially installed at the Zurriola seafront, Donostia (San Sebastian), later on moved to a roundabout outside the Anoeta Stadium of the same city, and back to the same location somewhat later.

[3] In 1968, he came back onto the spotlight with the full feature documentary Ama Lur - Tierra Madre ('mother earth'), co-directed with Fernando Larruquert.

Despite the documentary's countless difficulties with Franco's regime's censorship, it ultimately made it through to the San Sebastián International Film Festival, to public and critical acclaim.