Antonio López García
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Antonio López García (born 6 January 1936) is a Spanish
painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
and
sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
, known for his realistic style. He has been praised by leading art critics, such as Robert Hughes, who considered him "the greatest realist artist alive" in 1986. His style sometimes is deemed hyperrealistic. His painting was the subject of the film '' El Sol del Membrillo'', by
Victor Erice The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...
, in 1992.


Early life

Antonio López was born on 6 January 1936 in
Tomelloso Tomelloso () is a municipality located in the northeast of the province of Ciudad Real, within the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha in Spain. Situated in the geographic center of the natural region of La Mancha and with a population of 36 ...
,
Ciudad Real Ciudad Real (, ) is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region. It was founded as Villa Real in 1255 as a ro ...
, a few months before the beginning of the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
. It first appeared that Antonio would continue in the family tradition as a farmer, but an early facility for drawing caught the attention of his uncle Antonio López Torres, a local painter of
landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
, who gave him his first lessons. In 1949 he moved to Madrid in order to study for entrance to the competitive
Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the centre of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal aca ...
.


Postwar period

Between 1950 and 1955 he studied art at the
Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the centre of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal aca ...
, winning a number of prizes. While at the school he developed a friendship with María Moreno—also a painter—whom he would marry in 1961. He also formed friendships with
Francisco López Hernández Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Commu ...
,
Amalia Avia Amalia may refer to: People *Amalia (given name), feminine given name (includes a list of people so named) *Princess Amalia (disambiguation), several princesses with this name Films and television series *Amalia (1914 film), ''Amalia'' (191 ...
, and
Isabel Quintanilla Isabel Quintanilla (July 22, 1938 – October 24, 2017) was a Spanish visual artist belonging to the new Spanish Realism (arts), realism movement. Her paintings usually portray still life, describing simple objects and views from everyday life, a ...
. Out of this nucleus a realist group, the New Spanish Realists, was formed in Madrid. López García became friends with Jack Chambers, a
Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
studying in Madrid. Although Chambers did not belong to the New Spanish Realists, parallels to their style can be found in his work created in Canada in the late 1960s. Madrid of the postwar period was isolated from the international panorama of art and culture. All the information that López García accessed on contemporary art was derived from library books at the school; he gradually became aware of
Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
and other great artists of the period. In 1955, a scholarship allowed him to travel to
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
with Francisco López and study Italian painting from the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
. During this period he began to reevaluate Spanish painting in the
Prado The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on ...
, especially
Velázquez Velázquez, also Velazquez, Velásquez or Velasquez (, ), is a surname from Spain. It is a patronymic name, meaning "son of Velasco". References to "Velazquez" without a first name are often to the Spanish painter, Diego Velázquez. Notable peo ...
, a constant reference.


Varieties of realism

By 1957 his work had registered a certain surreal quality. Figures and objects appear to float in space and his pictures are populated by images removed from their contexts. The fantastic vein remains at least until 1964. During this period Antonio López shows an increasing interest in the representation of objects, independent of their contained narrative load.
Magic Realism Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical re ...
continued to inform his work through the mid-1960s, but gradually, as he said, "the physical world gained more prestige in my eyes." In fact he had never abandoned it. The 1959 oil ''Francisco Carretero and A. López García Talking'', like many portraits and townscapes of this period, is devoid of surrealistic devices. So are ''Autumn'' (1961) and ''The Sea'' (1961–70). Some of his relief sculptures conjure fantastic episodes, such as ''The Apparition'' (1963), in which a child hovers mid-air against a wall, gliding toward an open door. There are many affinities with the Tuscan Renaissance in his work in three dimensions. The ethereal ''Head of Carmencita'' (1965–68), for example, might at first glance be taken for a quattrocento Florentine bronze by Desiderio da Settignano. García's painting also reverberates with the art of the past. ''The Grapevine'' (1960) evokes
Tiepolo Giovanni Battista Tiepolo ( , ; 5 March 1696 – 27 March 1770), also known as Giambattista (or Gianbattista) Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered an importa ...
's sunlight, ''The Quince Tree'' (1962)
Chardin Chardin is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, (1699–1779), French painter noted for his still life works * Jean Chardin, (1643–1713), French jeweller and traveller, author of ''The Trave ...
's dusky murk, and other paintings echo Old Masters from Dürer to
Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French people, French Impressionism, Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, Print ...
. The beauty of López's work begins with an appreciation of his craft. Paintings such as ''The Sideboard'' (1965–66), or the atmospheric views of Madrid from the 1970s, show an acute perception and understanding of the beauty of the objects he portrays. Though López is devoted to the mundane—he depicts humble people, buildings, plants, and cluttered interiors—his portrayal of these subjects is compelling and beautiful. Starkly lit studies of his studio, bathroom, and the red brick wall in his backyard underscore an interest in prosaic subject matter. His deftness brings attention to these simple forms, encouraging the viewer to re-examine the presence of ordinary objects. He began to paint panoramic views of Madrid about 1960. His work from this period attracted recognition, first within Spain—in 1961 he had his first solo show in Madrid—and later, in 1965 and 1968, at the Staempfli Gallery in
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
. López faithfully adhered to familiar subjects: images of women, anonymous and humble objects of domestic surroundings, desolate spaces, images of his garden and landscape. The pictures are sometimes worked on for more than twenty years, some of them remaining unfinished. As the artist explains, "the pictorial nucleus begins to grow and you work until the whole surface has an expressive intensity equivalent to what you have before you, converted into a pictorial reality." He is a versatile realist, proficient in the traditional media of pencil drawing, oil painting on board, carved wood sculpture, and
bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
in plaster.


Exhibitions

Because he is not prolific, López has had only a handful of one-artist shows. His first individual show was held at the
Ateneo de Madrid The Ateneo de Madrid ("Athenæum of Madrid") is a private cultural institution located in the capital of Spain that was founded in 1835. Its full name is ''Ateneo Científico, Literario y Artístico de Madrid'' ("Scientific, Literary and Artistic ...
in 1957. Three have been in New York: two in the 1960s and one, in 1986, at his current representative, the Marlborough Gallery. In 2008 he was featured in a solo exhibition at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...
. The exhibition included the two enormous bronze heads he sculpted of his grandchildren, which were placed on the front lawn of the Museum of Fine Arts. His work is in several major U.S. museum collections.


Recognition and influence

During most of his career, Antonio López García worked amidst an artistic culture dominated first by abstraction and later by conceptual currents. In the 1960s and the 1970s, his prestige quietly grew. It is possible to establish links between his work and the new European figurative tendencies or the American
hyperrealism Hyperreality is a concept in post-structuralism that refers to the process of the evolution of notions of reality, leading to a cultural state of confusion between signs and symbols invented to stand in for reality, and direct perceptions of ...
. He has been criticized by some modern artists for what they consider neo-academism. López has won numerous awards. After winning the III National Art Contest in his final year of art school, he was awarded a trip to Italy by the Spanish Ministry of Education, in order to study the works of Renaissance masters. He has also been awarded the Medalla de Oro from Castilla-La Mancha and the Community of Madrid, in 1986 and 1990, respectively. In 2004, López was inducted as an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, and in 2006 he was awarded the Velázquez Prize for Fine Arts.http://www.mfa.org/dynamic/sub/ctr_link_url_6422.pdf


Films

López is featured in an award-winning 1992 film, '' El Sol del Membrillo'', directed by
Victor Erice The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...
and written by both. The film, which portrays López's struggles to paint, and then draw, a small quince tree growing in the backyard of his studio, gives considerable attention to his almost fanatically exacting working methods.


Public collections

*
Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of modern art, ...
*
Bilbao Fine Arts Museum The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum (Spanish: ''Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao'', Basque language, Basque: ''Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa'') is an art museum located in the city of Bilbao, Spain. The building of the museum is located entirely inside the c ...
*
Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Located in the Wade Park District of University Circle, the museum is internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian art, Asian and Art of anc ...
*
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Fogg may refer to: * Fogg (surname), including a list of people with the name * Fogg Art Museum, at Harvard University * Fogg Dam in Humpty Doo, Northern Territory, Australia * Hume-Fogg High School Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet High School is a ...
,
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
*
Kunsthalle Hamburg The Hamburger Kunsthalle is the art museum of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is one of the largest art museums in the country. It consists of three connected buildings, dating from 1869 (main building), 1921 (Kuppelsaal) and ...
* Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou,
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
*
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía The ''Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía'' ("Queen Sofía National Museum Art Centre"; MNCARS) is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992, and is named for Queen Sofía. I ...
,
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
*
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...
*
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
* Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum


See also

*
Hyperrealism (visual arts) Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolution photograph. Hyperrealism is considered an advancement of photorealism by the methods used to create the resulting paintings or sculptures. The term is primarily app ...
*
Magic Realism Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical re ...


Notes


References

*Antonio López García by
Francisco Calvo Serraller Francisco Calvo Serraller (19 April 1948 – 16 November 2018) was a Spanish art historian. Life He was born in 1948 in Madrid. Career Calvo Serraller completed his Doctorate in Philosophy and Literature specializing in History at the Complute ...
, Edward J. Sullivan, and
Michael Brenson Michael Brenson (born 1943) is an American art critic and curator. From 1982 to 1991, Brenson worked as a critic for ''The New York Times''. Early life and education Michael Brenson was born in 1943. He was raised in New York and traveled often ...
, Rizzoli, pp. 358 *Quotes are from Michael Brenson's interview with the artist in the Rizzoli monograph, and from Antonio López García, "Una España Velazqueña", Blanco y Negro (Sunday magazine section of ABC, Madrid) 28 January 1990, pp. XIX-XX *Jonathan Brown, The Golden Age of Spanish Painting, Yale University Press, 1991, p. 310.


Bibliography

*Nieve, Francisco, ''Antonio López García'', Rizzoli International, 1986 *Rizzoli, Antonio ''López García'', Rizzoli International, 1990 *Brutvan, Cheryl, ''Antonio Lopez Garcia'', MFA Publications, 2008 * Serraller, Francisco Calvo, ''Antonio López García: Drawings'', D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 2010. .


External links


Biographical Timeline of Antonio Lopez Garcia's LifeAntonio López García at ArtnetAntonio Lopez Garcia at Galeria Marlborough, Madrid
includes photographs of many of his works. *
Antonio López García
objects from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Video-Interview: Antonio López García. 2009, Madrid.
English Subtitles.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez Garcia, Antonio 1936 births Living people People from the Province of Ciudad Real 20th-century Spanish painters 20th-century Spanish male artists Spanish male painters 21st-century Spanish painters Spanish sculptors Spanish still life painters Spanish male sculptors Realist painters 20th-century Spanish sculptors Cityscape artists 21st-century Spanish male artists