Ángel Atienza Landeta (16 March 1931 – 23 August 2015) was a Spanish artist and

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a defender for

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

, with whom he won the inaugural

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

Football career

Atienza was born in the Spanish capital of

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 ...

and retired from professional football on 1 July 1960. Over the course of his career, he played for

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...

and

, winning

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

and the

thrice each for the latter. Already interested in art, he worked as an artist in the period between playing for Zaragoza and Madrid.

Art career

During his football career, Atienza participated in group exhibitions and maintained ties with the artistic world in his spare time. In 1958, during a journey in Central Europe, he discovered coloured glass fitted in concrete as an artistic expression. Subsequently, he started to collaborate with other artists, retired from football, and began making

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

s and

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

pieces. In 1964, he started to create

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

murals. His first work was at the Carlton Rioja Hotel in

Logroño Logroño ( , , ) is the capital of the autonomous community of La Rioja (Spain), La Rioja, Spain. Located in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, primarily in the right (South) bank of the Ebro River, Logroño has historically been a place of pa ...

. He moved to Venezuela in 1976 and began incorporating new materials in his mural work, such as iron, bronze, and aluminium. He participated directly in various architectural projects in order to obtain harmony between his works and their surroundings. In 2001, he returned to Spain, where he continued working on paintings and participating in

exhibitions An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

and showrooms.

Personal life

His older brother Adolfo Atienza was also a footballer, who played as a forward for

Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta Vigo, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), the club was fou ...

, Real Madrid,

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...

Real Jaén Real Jaén Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Jaén, Spain, Jaén, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1929 it plays in , holding home matches at ''Nuevo Estadio de La Vict ...

, and the Spanish national team. They played together for Madrid during the 1954–55 season.

Honours and awards

Football

: 1954–55, 1956–57, 1957–58 *

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

1957 Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricke ...

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

, 1959, 1960

Art

*Savings Bank of Málaga national prize (

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

) *Honorary plaque of San Juan Bosco Church (

Los Teques Los Teques () is the capital of the state of Miranda, and the municipality of Guaicaipuro in north-central Venezuela. The city is about 25 km southwest of Caracas, and above mean sea level. It lies in the Cordillera de la Costa, on the ba ...

, Venezuela) *Juan Fernandez of Leon Distinction (

Guanare Guanare () is the capital of Portuguesa State, Venezuela. It is where la Virgen de Coromoto is said to have appeared to a Coromoto Indian. Guanare was founded on 3 November 1591 by João Fernandes de Leão Pacheco (1543–1593), a Portuguese ...

, Venezuela)

Exhibitions

*1964: Daily Town, exhibitions room (

) *1972: Rottembourg Art Gallery (Madrid) *1972: Hilton Hotel, exhibitions room (

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

) *1973: Lambert Monet Art Gallery (

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

) *1975: Rottembourg Art Gallery, group exhibition (Madrid) *1975: La Coruña, exhibition room (Spain) *2003: Sala Barna Art Gallery (

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

) *2003: MAC 21 International Contemporary Art Fair (

Marbella Marbella ( , , ) is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the re ...

, Spain) *2003: Frankfurter Buchmesse Art Fair (

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

) *2004: Sala Sorolla Art Gallery (

Terrassa Terrassa () is a city in central-eastern Catalonia and in the province of Barcelona (Spain). It is one of the two capitals of Vallès Occidental county, being the larger in both area and population. The name ''Terrassa'' derives from Latin ''Te ...

) *2004: Sala Barna Art Gallery, group exhibitions (Barcelona) *2004: Frankfurter Buchmesse Art Fair Art Fair (Frankfurt) *2004: Museum of the Americas (Miami) *2005–2006: Torreón Fortea, exhibition room (

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

) *2006: Sala Barna Art Gallery (Barcelona) *2006: Holland Art Fair (

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

) *2007: Sala Barna Art Gallery (Barcelona) *2008: Sala Esart Art Gallery, Winter Showroom (Barcelona) *2008: Sala Pia Almoina Art Gallery (Barcelona)

References

External links

Official websiteCurriculum vitae
*@angel_atienza (Instagram) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Atienza, Angel 1931 births 2015 deaths Artists from the Community of Madrid Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Community of Madrid Men's association football defenders UEFA Champions League–winning players La Liga players Segunda División players CD Lugo players Real Zaragoza players Real Madrid CF players Venezuelan artists 20th-century Spanish sportsmen