BOSTON, MA - The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), will present the first retrospective at an American museum of the works of contemporary Spanish artist Antonio López García during an exhibition to run April 13 through July 27, 2008. Antonio López García  will feature approximately 45 paintings, drawings, and sculpture by the celebrated artist of the realist school, including nine works from the MFA’s collection and loans from European and American museums and private collections.

(The exhibition will complement another major Spanish exhibition, El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III, which debuts at the MFA on April 20, 2008, and runs through July 27, 2008.)

The familiar and ordinary of López’s world—the classical themes of landscape, still life, and figure realized through the close examination of his immediate surroundings—comprise this renowned artist’s subject. With painstaking detail and profound adherence to observation, López creates a faithful representation of his humble motifs. His strict dependence upon the truth of his subjects has become legendary—sculptures and paintings have sometimes taken him years to complete—which accounts for the often lengthy creative process for which he is known.

"Antonio López García is considered a national treasure in his native Spain. We are proud to bring the extraordinary works of this contemporary realist and visionary to American audiences," said Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Born in 1936 in Tomelloso (part of the La Mancha area of central Spain), López displayed innate artistic talents as a youth and gained admittance to the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid at the age of 13. In the years after graduation in 1955, López was first associated with "magic realism" and juxtaposed peculiar combinations of images of people and places, resulting in mysterious and haunting compositions. Yet, by the early 1960s, the artist developed what would be his mature, realist period through which he observed his surroundings with increasing intensity, and meticulously translated his view into poetic canvases, drawings, and sculpture. He has received international acclaim throughout the years, and in 2006 was awarded the Premio Velázquez  (Velázquez Prize), named after the 17th-century painter (the award aspires to become the arts equivalent of the Cervantes Prize, regarded as the literature Nobel of the Spanish-speaking world).

"The hallmark of López’s work is the silence that he imbues in his simple subjects and his uncompromising process," said exhibition curator Cheryl Brutvan (the MFA’s Robert L. Beal., Enid L., and Bruce A. Beal Curator of Contemporary Art). "López has an intense relationship with each subject—whether his beloved Madrid or the quince tree at his home. His extraordinary patience allows him to create an authentic art, filled with reverence toward such humble themes."

Antonio López García  will highlight the artist’s career from 1955 to the present as seen through works in three major groupings: Landscape, Still Life, and Figure.

Landscape

López moved to Madrid to attend school and since then has developed a close relationship with the city—one he encounters through intimate moments in solitude and over lengthy periods of observation from identifiable vantage points. His process demands preserving similar conditions each time, resulting in repeated visits over days and, sometimes, years to complete a work. In articulating his vision of Madrid, López has chosen throughout his career to paint and draw the city from a variety of distinct views. The North of Madrid from "La Maliciosa" (1963-64, J.P. Morgan Chase, New York) is a daunting, panoramic view observed from the distance of a notable spot in the Guadarrama Mountains near Madrid. In contrast is South Madrid  (1965-85, Masaveu Foundation, Oviedo, Spain), the artist’s first attempt at painting urban Madrid, which was even more of a challenge, becoming one of his many long-term projects. Created during a 20-year period, the work evolved as did the changing city. Through such intense observation, López engages Madrid, which can be seen in his more recent painting, Madrid as Seen from the Fire Tower of Vallecas (1997-2006, Madrid Assembly). Typically on view at the Madrid Assembly in the city’s Vallecas district, it has never been lent prior to this exhibition. In contrast to his other landscapes, Atocha (1964, MFA, Boston), which depicts the area around the Atocha railway station in Madrid, deviates slightly from the artist’s traditional landscape with the incorporation of a nude couple in mad embrace, unaware of the progress of time and the cold world around them.

Still Life

López’s vision provokes the viewer to consider even the simplest subject matter with newfound significance. In Sink and Mirror (1967, MFA, Boston), the tangible display of personal effects draws in the observer, creating an intimate display and self portrait. While truthful to his subject, López has always challenged himself artistically. In his simple, traditional still life Glass with Flowers and Wall (1965, Private Collection) his attention is not only directed to the delicate white flowers, but to creating a composition that questions and simplifies the illusion of depth through planes of color from a monochromatic and subdued palette, a precursor to minimalist aesthetics.

The race against time is at its most obvious when López draws upon subjects from nature such as those found in his garden. López has always considered the beauty of plants in proximity to his studio. One of his most beloved motifs is Quince Tree (1990, Private Collection) and his efforts to faithfully represent it are the focal point of the documentary by Victor Erice, El Sol del membrillo (Sunlight on the Quince Tree). The 1992 film captures the loyal and intense relationship between the artist and his subject, and ultimately the passage of time. As he attempts to overcome nature when the tree branches become weighted down by the growing quince, López struggles to continue, rigging the branches with string to preserve their original form. The film won the Critics’ Prize at Cannes as well as the top prize at the Chicago Film Festival (in 1992), and will be shown during the run of the exhibition.

Figure

Perhaps only the artist’s face is missing in López’s close study of his family throughout his career. Maria (1972, Private Collection), astonishing in its realism, is a pencil drawing of the artist’s oldest daughter at the age of 10. But it is in sculpture that he has most often represented the human figure. From his earliest reliefs in painted wood of mysterious narratives, to the essence of his young daughter, life size, in the polychrome wood sculpture Maria Standing (1964, Private Collection), sculpture plays a prominent role in the artist’s career. López’s work, Man and Woman  (1968-1994, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid), is extraordinary in its detail and sense of life. More closely aligned with the figurative work of centuries earlier (such as found in ancient Greek and Egyptian examples), Man and Woman also references his pairing of figures from his first figurative pieces created decades earlier, such as Sinforoso and Josefa (1955, Private Collection).

In an interview with author Michael Brenson, López said: "I don’t consider myself a true painter. More than color, the shape of things, their volume, matter and the distance between their different areas have always been the stimuli prompting my pictures, and all this is probably what has enabled me to work as a sculptor."

EXHIBITION ORGANIZATION

The exhibition Antonio López García, organized by the MFA’s Beal Curator Cheryl Brutvan, features nine works by Antonio López García from the Museum’s own collection, which is the largest public holding in the United States of this revered artist’s work. It is second only to Madrid’s Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (where a retrospective on López was mounted in 1993). Eight works in the MFA’s collection were donated in 2003 as part of the Melvin Blake and Frank Purnell Collection, and one was purchased with donated funds in 1998.

PUBLICATION

A retrospective monograph, Antonio López García, will accompany this exhibition featuring an introductory essay by Cheryl Brutvan, with entries for each painting written by Miguel Fernández-Cid (from the translation of a previous work on López published by Ciro). Included in the publication will be approximately 55 illustrations of paintings in color and 10 documentary photos. It will be available in soft cover for $25 at the MFA Bookstore and Shop or by visiting www.mfa.org .

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), is recognized for the quality and scope of its encyclopedic collection, which includes an estimated 450,000 objects. The Museum’s collection is made up of: Art of the Americas; Art of Europe; Contemporary Art; Art of Asia, Oceania, and Africa; Art of the Ancient World; Prints, Drawings, and Photographs; Textile and Fashion Arts; and Musical Instruments.

Open seven days a week, the MFA’s hours are Saturday through Tuesday, 10 a.m. – 4:45 p.m.; Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 9:45 p.m. Voluntary donations are welcome. Gund Gallery exhibitions, like El Greco to Velázquez, are ticketed events that require an additional fee. The Museum is closed on New Year’s Day, Patriots’ Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. For general information, visit the MFA website at www.mfa.org  or call 617.267.9300.