Lucio Muñoz

Lucio Muñoz was one of the greatest exponents of Spanish informalism during the second half of the 20th century. He was born in Madrid in 1929 and studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. After his decisive journey to Paris in 1956, he entered the terrain of abstract art, to which he remained faithful throughout the rest of his career. It was at that time that he discovered wood, which, from that moment onwards, was to become the vehicle, scratched, burnt, carved or mouldy, for paintings rich in poetic connotations and highly attentive to the expressiveness of nature.

The proposed selection of works gathers together around thirty medium and large format paintings which cover fundamental moments in Lucio Muñoz’s creative career. They represent the decade of the 50’s, with his first, still figurative, works and his crucial discovery of wood, the acknowledged 60’s during which this discovery was consolidated in dark paintings with a tragic atmosphere, the 70’s, full of strange organic shapes and supernatural landscapes, the 80’s when nature took possession of his paintings like a whirlwind and, lastly, the 90’s when Lucio Muñoz reached his peak as an artist and offered serene, noble and almost naked panels.

Following the painter’s death in 1998, the critics highlighted the coherence and solidity of his work, referring to him as: "the greatest exponent of naturalistic abstraction", "the painter with poetic imagination" and "the master of abstract expressionism".

Biography

1929
Born in Madrid.

1949-54
Studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.

1955
Received a grant from the French government and lived in Paris until the end of 1956.

1959
From this year onwards, he participated in the most important exhibitions of Spanish paintings all over the world.

1960
Participated in the 30th Biennial of Venice.

1961
Carried out his first solo exhibitions abroad.

1962
His work was exhibited in the Staempfli Gallery in New York. He created the mural for the Sanctuary of Aránzazu in Guipúzcoa.

1964
Galería Juana Mordó was opened. He belonged to the associated group of painters from the moment of its foundation until 1991.

1983
He was awarded the Spanish National Prize for Plastic Arts.

1988
Retrospective exhibition organised in the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.

1989
The Lucio Muñoz monograph was published by Lerner & Lerner in Madrid and by Rizzoli in New York in 1991.
He signed an exclusive contract with the Marlborough Gallery.

1993
Received the Gold Medal of Fine Arts.

1995
Created two murals for the new European Union building in Brussels.

1996
Received the Spanish Art Critics Association Prize.

1998
Created the mural "Ciudad inacabada" (Unfinished City), measuring 12 x 11.5 metres, for the chamber of the new Madrid Assembly building in Vallecas.

He died in Madrid on 24th May 1998.