Antonio Lorenzo

ANTONIO LORENZO (Madrid, 1922 - 2009).
Untitled, 1984.
Etching and aquatint on Arches paper. Copy 92/170.
Signed, dated and justified in the lower area.
Measurements: 44,5 x 33 cm (print); 62,5 x 50 cm (paper).
Antonio Lorenzo Carrión began his training as a disciple of Vázquez Díaz during the war, a master he met again when he entered the School of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. He soon connected with the most innovative media, exhibiting with artists such as Luis Feito or Guillermo Delgado in the bookstore and gallery Fernando de la Fe, the first non-figurative gallery in Spain. Belonging to the generation of abstract painters of the fifties, he was also a member of the Cuenca Group, along with Antonio Saura, Gustavo Torner, Fernando Zóbel, Gerardo Rueda and Eusebio Sempere. Lorenzo was also a professor of painting and engraving, and a founding member of the Museo de Arte Abstracto de Cuenca. Unquestionably one of the best engravers that Spain has had in its history, Lorenzo deployed on his graphic work an enormous creativity and a very high formal quality, especially in his copper and zinc plates, which show up to twenty shades of color. Throughout his career, Lorenzo held numerous solo exhibitions and took part in many group exhibitions, both in Spain and abroad, highlighting his participation in the Venice Biennale in 1964, 1966 and 1972. He also participated in the New York World's Fair, in the Spanish pavilion (1963). He also played a decisive role at the head of the Quince group workshop, which had among its objectives the approach of the work of art to an increasingly restless Spanish society that, either due to lack of training or economic limitations, had traditionally been left out of the art market and art collecting. Within this group Lorenzo was in charge of the artistic direction and directed the printmaking workshops between 1972 and 1975, initiating renowned Spanish and foreign artists such as Rafael Canogar, Bonifacio, Lucio Muñoz, Mitsuo Miura, Fabricio Plessi, Andrés Ángel and Darío Villalba, among others, into the practice of printmaking. Lorenzo is currently represented in some of the most important museums around the world, including the MoMA in New York, the British Museum in London, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español in Cuenca.