Luis Canelo Gutiérrez graduated in Philosophy and in Information Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1978, he was awarded the Juan March Foundation Grant for Research into Visual Arts and, in 1980, the National Artistic Heritage Grant to Research New Expressive Forms. Canelo was one of the painters of the ‘New Generation’ of the late 1970s. He began painting Impressionist-inspired landscapes in 1952, but later, under the influence of Antoni Tàpies, turned his back on this approach to shift his focus to the organic world, basing himself on pre-Socratic philosophical approaches. In the mid-1970s, that material abstraction was gradually diluted as he moved towards a biological fluidity of geometric shapes and structures drawn from the natural order. In his works, he depicted microscopic elements deployed in magmas of lines and dots to show nature in its germinal state. In the 1990s, those same motifs were organised in grids in colder colour ranges. In recent years, he has expanded his pallet. The colour arises from the different states or densities of the matter being studied, expressing the different phases of evanescence, aqueous fluidity and stony hardness of the elements, arranged in strata.
First exhibited in solo shows at the Edurne Gallery in Madrid in the 1970s, Canelo’s works have subsequently been included in group exhibitions such as the travelling show in Japan ‘Spanish Painters from the Renaissance to the Present Day’ (1976); the ‘III Salón de los 16’ at the Contemporary Art Museum of Madrid (1983); and ‘Spanish Natures’ at the Reina Sofía (Madrid, 1987). In 2005, Luis Canelo was awarded the Medal of Extremadura.
Luis Canelo Gutiérrez graduated in Philosophy and in Information Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1978, he was awarded the Juan March Foundation Grant for Research into Visual Arts and, in 1980, the National Artistic Heritage Grant to Research New Expressive Forms. Canelo was one of the painters of the ‘New Generation’ of the late 1970s. He began painting Impressionist-inspired landscapes in 1952, but later, under the influence of Antoni Tàpies, turned his back on this approach to shift his focus to the organic world, basing himself on pre-Socratic philosophical approaches. In the mid-1970s, that material abstraction was gradually diluted as he moved towards a biological fluidity of geometric shapes and structures drawn from the natural order. In his works, he depicted microscopic elements deployed in magmas of lines and dots to show nature in its germinal state. In the 1990s, those same motifs were organised in grids in colder colour ranges. In recent years, he has expanded his pallet. The colour arises from the different states or densities of the matter being studied, expressing the different phases of evanescence, aqueous fluidity and stony hardness of the elements, arranged in strata.
First exhibited in solo shows at the Edurne Gallery in Madrid in the 1970s, Canelo’s works have subsequently been included in group exhibitions such as the travelling show in Japan ‘Spanish Painters from the Renaissance to the Present Day’ (1976); the ‘III Salón de los 16’ at the Contemporary Art Museum of Madrid (1983); and ‘Spanish Natures’ at the Reina Sofía (Madrid, 1987). In 2005, Luis Canelo was awarded the Medal of Extremadura.