Francisco López Hernández came from a family of artists: his father was an engraver and silversmith, his brother Julio is a sculptor; his wife Isabel Quintanilla is a painter and so is his son Francisco López Quintanilla (some of whose works are also in the Banco de España Collection). He studied sculpture under José Capuz at the School of Arts and Crafts of Madrid and attended the Academy of San Fernando. He also obtained grants from the Ministry of Education in 1956 to study in Greece and Rome. In 1960 he secured a subsidy that enabled him to maintain a residency at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome for several years. In 1968 he began to work as a lecturer in Medal Art at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Madrid. He obtained a PhD in Fine Arts in 1988. Over the years he forged close artistic and personal relations with other realist artists of his generation such as Antonio López, María Moreno, Julio López Hernández, Amalia Avia, Esperanza Parada and Isabel Quintanilla. Together, they made up what Almudena Armenta refers to as the 'Madrid Group' and others as the 'Madrid Realists'.
López Hernández produced sculptures for major official buildings, including Ophelia Drowned (Barcelona, 1964), reliefs for the Faculty of Philosophy of the Complutense University in Madrid (1965), plaques for the façade of the Bankinter building on Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid (1976), a monument to Isidoro Macabich (Ibiza, 1980), reliefs for the Banco de España headquarters building in Cadiz (1983), work on the Telefónica central headquarters building on Gran Vía in Madrid (1984), a monument to Enrique Tierno Galván (Madrid, 1988), Monument to Premier Aguirre (Bilbao, 2004) and Portrait of Pablo Picasso (Malaga, 2008) among others.
His work has appeared in group exhibitions at the Ateneo in Madrid (1957), the Rodríguez-Acosta Foundation (Granada, 1959), the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome (1966), the Kunstverein Hannover (Hanover, Germany, 1974), Documenta 6 (Kassel, Germany, 1977), the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (Germany, 1976), the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, 1987), the Marcelino Botín Foundation (Santander, 1992), the Esteban Vicente Museum (Segovia, 2003) and the Thyssen- Bornemisza (Madrid, 2016), among others. Major solo exhibitions include those at the Buchholz (Munich) and Meyer Ellinger (Frankfurt) in Germany 1970, where his work began to achieve international renown, and a show at the Conde Duque Cultural Centre (Madrid, 1996).
Francisco López Hernández came from a family of artists: his father was an engraver and silversmith, his brother Julio is a sculptor; his wife Isabel Quintanilla is a painter and so is his son Francisco López Quintanilla (some of whose works are also in the Banco de España Collection). He studied sculpture under José Capuz at the School of Arts and Crafts of Madrid and attended the Academy of San Fernando. He also obtained grants from the Ministry of Education in 1956 to study in Greece and Rome. In 1960 he secured a subsidy that enabled him to maintain a residency at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome for several years. In 1968 he began to work as a lecturer in Medal Art at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Madrid. He obtained a PhD in Fine Arts in 1988. Over the years he forged close artistic and personal relations with other realist artists of his generation such as Antonio López, María Moreno, Julio López Hernández, Amalia Avia, Esperanza Parada and Isabel Quintanilla. Together, they made up what Almudena Armenta refers to as the 'Madrid Group' and others as the 'Madrid Realists'.
López Hernández produced sculptures for major official buildings, including Ophelia Drowned (Barcelona, 1964), reliefs for the Faculty of Philosophy of the Complutense University in Madrid (1965), plaques for the façade of the Bankinter building on Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid (1976), a monument to Isidoro Macabich (Ibiza, 1980), reliefs for the Banco de España headquarters building in Cadiz (1983), work on the Telefónica central headquarters building on Gran Vía in Madrid (1984), a monument to Enrique Tierno Galván (Madrid, 1988), Monument to Premier Aguirre (Bilbao, 2004) and Portrait of Pablo Picasso (Malaga, 2008) among others.
His work has appeared in group exhibitions at the Ateneo in Madrid (1957), the Rodríguez-Acosta Foundation (Granada, 1959), the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome (1966), the Kunstverein Hannover (Hanover, Germany, 1974), Documenta 6 (Kassel, Germany, 1977), the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (Germany, 1976), the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, 1987), the Marcelino Botín Foundation (Santander, 1992), the Esteban Vicente Museum (Segovia, 2003) and the Thyssen- Bornemisza (Madrid, 2016), among others. Major solo exhibitions include those at the Buchholz (Munich) and Meyer Ellinger (Frankfurt) in Germany 1970, where his work began to achieve international renown, and a show at the Conde Duque Cultural Centre (Madrid, 1996).