Luis Arcas Brauner

LUIS ARCAS BRAUNER (Valencia, 1934 - Cambridge, UK, 1989).
"Village street", 1962.
Oil on paper.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 48 x 31 cm; 67 x 50 cm (frame).
Landscape painter, although he also approached the portrait and the still life, Luis Arcas began his formation in the Superior School of Fine Arts of San Carlos of Valencia, where he also made complementary studies of engraving. He extended his studies with the Landscape Pension of El Paular (1953), and completed his training a year later. Later he obtained a painting pension from the Caja de Ahorros de Valencia (1958), a scholarship to study in Paris from the Albert-Alvarez Foundation (1958) and a scholarship from the Casa Velázquez granted by the Government of France and the City Council of Valencia (1966). In 1974 he obtained the Chair of Natural Drawing at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, and four years later he was appointed member of the Royal Academy of San Carlos. He was also a founding member of the group Arte Actual. He won numerous awards throughout his career, including the silver medal at the XIII University Art Exhibition in 1952, the Extraordinary National Prize at the V National Fine Arts Competition in Alicante in 1956, an honorable mention at the VI Autumn Exhibition of the Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia in 1960 and the prize of the Diputación de La Coruña at the National Fine Arts held in Barcelona that same year. Between 1954 and 1973 he showed his work in numerous exhibitions, both individual and collective, and among the latter it is worth mentioning for its importance the one entitled "75 Years of Valencian Painting", organized by the City Council of Valencia in 1975. He also participated in the National Exhibitions of Madrid in 1954, 1960 and 1976, the Spanish-American Biennial of Barcelona in 1955, the Biennial of Spanish Contemporary Art in Paris and others. Likewise, the Caja de Ahorros de Valencia dedicated to him a retrospective exhibition entitled "Thirty years of professional life". Luis Arcas held individual exhibitions in Spain, France and Argentina.