La cena
Artist
Antonio López García
Exhibition
Llenguatges del gravat
Main features
- Title: La cena
- Technical: Gravat
- Price: 4.500 €
Description of the work
The work La cena is by the artist Antonio López. Paper engraving technique. Measures 63 x 46 cm. Numbering. 33/76 and 34/76
He was born in Tomelloso, Ciudad Real, on January 6, 1936, into a wealthy family living on the cultivation of his lands;
A few months before the start of the Spanish Civil War, which occurred on July 17 with the uprising of the army. The war would end three years later, on April 1, 1939, giving way to a long thirty-seven-year military dictatorship led by Francisco Franco. However, Antonio López remembers his childhood in the village as a happy and quiet time. It was there that he began his artistic training with his uncle, the painter Antonio López Torres, who, observing his ease for drawing, an activity in which he found more and more pleasure, copying for hours sheets reproducing paintings from the 19th century, during the summer of 1949, he guided him in his first drawings and paintings of the natural.
ANTONIO LÓPEZ
In October of that year, his uncle convinced his parents that Antonio should travel to Madrid to prepare for the entrance exam for the San Fernando School of Fine Arts. That's why he works mainly on statue drawing, copying the plaster from the Museum of Art Reproductions, then located in the Casón del Buen Retiro, and also attending courses at the School of Arts and Crafts in the afternoons.
From that moment on, he met his future friends and main peers: the brothers and sculptors Julio and Francisco López Hernández, the painters Joaquín Ramo, Enrique Gran, Lucio Muñoz, and the painter and writer Francisco Nieva. others . A little later, the painters Maria Moreno, Isabel Quintanilla and Amalia Avia will join the circle of friends. At the age of fourteen, he passed the entrance exam to the San Fernando School, where he studied official Fine Arts between 1950 and 1955. In 1955 he traveled to Italy with Francisco López, thanks to a travel grant from the Ministry of National Education. That same year he exhibited in the halls of the General Directorate of Fine Arts with Francisco and Julio López Hernández and Lucio Muñoz, who was already heading towards abstraction.
For more information on the work La cena by the artist Antonio López, in the Espai Cavallers gallery.
Artist biography
Antonio López García
The artist Antonio López García. Tomelloso, Ciudad Real, 1936
Espai Cavallers Gallery
He began training with his uncle, the painter Antonio López Torres.
In 1949 he traveled to Madrid to prepare to enter the School of Fine Arts of San Fernando, where, between 1950 and 1955, he studied painting. In 1955 he obtained a travel grant from the Ministry of National Education with which he traveled to Italy. In 1958 he won the Fine Arts competition in the “Natura Mora” section of the Rodríguez Acosta Foundation, for which he received a scholarship with which he traveled to Greece, and returned to Italy, where he visited Rome, thanks to another scholarship from the Ministry of ‘education
After finishing his studies, his production includes elements from different artistic currents such as Cubism or Surrealism, and the latter are the most recurring since they helped him reinforce the narrative character of the works. From the sixties he begins to abandon the dreamlike and gradually develops a more objective approach. His motifs are portraits of people around him, interiors, still lifes and urban landscapes, which serve as backgrounds for still lifes and scenes with figures. His sculptural work develops in parallel with painting and drawing, making reliefs in different materials, as well as his first exempted pieces. Between 1964 and 1969 he taught the Color Preparatory Chair at the School of Fine Arts in San Fernando. Then he took courses on time, dedicating himself completely to artistic creation.
He has participated in numerous group exhibitions and has been the protagonist of several individual shows, among which stand out for their impact those held at the Staempfli Gallery in New York in 1965 and 1968 and at the Marlborough Gallery (New York and London) in 1986. In 1985 he represented Spain at Europalia 85, Brussels, together with the artists Eduardo Chillida and Antoni Tàpies.
In 1990, the film director Víctor Erice filmed the feature El sol del codony, focused on the creative process of Antonio López, which was later awarded the International Critics Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1992, as well as the ‘Hugo de Or for best fiction film at the Chicago International Film Festival and with the Best Film of the Decade Award from the Ontario Cinematheque in 1999.
For more information about the artist Antonio López García at Espai Cavallers Gallery