Antonio López, the genius of Spanish figurative art
PHOTO: Manuel Castells
The artist Antonio López was awarded an honorary doctor by the University of Navarra in an academic ceremony held on Thursday, October 27, 2011. The ceremony was presided over by the Chancellor of the center Monsignor Javier Echevarría.
award Prince of Asturias award for the Arts (1985) and the Velázquez award for the Plastic Arts (2006), he is one of the representatives of contemporary Spanish realism and one of the most sought-after Spanish painters in the international art markets.
Born in Tomelloso (Ciudad Real) in 1936, his early vocation for drawing, as well as the influence of his uncle, the painter Antonio López Torres, shaped his decision to devote himself to painting when he was only 13 years old. He then moved to Madrid to prepare for his admission to the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts, where he remained between 1950 and 1955.
In 1955 he traveled to Italy, and, after finishing his programs of study, from 1965 to 1969 he was professor in charge of the Chair of Preparatory Coloring at the School of Fine Arts of San Fernando. In 1993 he was appointed member of issue of the Real Academia de San Fernando in Madrid.
The truth and beauty of things
The painter's work is characterized by a researcher sense of reality and he is considered the father of the Madrid hyperrealist school. At the University of Navarra he has been teaching since 2006 the Figurative Painting Workshop where he works on the genres of the figurative tradition, such as still life, the human figure with natural models and landscapes.
With this proposal for the doctorate Honoris Causa, the University of Navarra wants to recognize the profoundly academic personality of Antonio López, an artist who, as he himself confesses, dedicates his work to the knowledge of the truth of things; and also wants to thank the generosity of the teacher who not only needs to share it, but who makes of his life the daily submission teach others the way to reach it.
There are no words to praise the career of an artist who is considered one of the greatest contemporary Spanish artists. His paintings are developed over several years, sometimes decades, with a slow, meditated expression, distilling with each brushstroke the essence of the object or landscape, until the artist manages to capture the essence of it on the canvas.
Rediscovery and transmission of beauty
The painter seeks among the reality that surrounds him those everyday aspects, which he collects with a plenary session of the Executive Council treatment of detail, bordering on the photographic. His preferences range from views of Madrid to portraits of his relatives, passing through the most everyday and close objects.
He is a singular artist who transmits the need to discover beauty in the world around him and through his art transmit it to others. A beauty that for him is something more than an aesthetic quality. The beauty that Antonio López pursues in his works is a reflection of something deeper, greater, that which transcends the truth he seeks.
Sponsored by the University's School of Architecture , Antonio López's work also teaches architects to look at man as the protagonist of their spaces and to try to transcend them with a beauty that does not need stridency, but simply the form that encloses the truth of his life, or at least the attempt to achieve it.
Related contents:
- Antonio López and his relationship with the University of Navarra
