Antonio Lorenzo
Madrid 1922 - Madrid 2009

Antonio Lorenzo trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid under Francisco Esteve Botey and Daniel Vázquez Díaz. He was part of the Cuenca Group, along with Antonio Saura, Gustavo Torner, Fernando Zóbel, Gerardo Rueda and Eusebio Sempere. During his most productive years, from 1972 into the 1980s, he was a member of the 15 Group. He is also known as a museum curator: Zóbel, Torner, Rueda and he were founders of and advisors to the Museum of Abstract Art in Cuenca. He also taught such stand-out artists as Rafael Canogar, Bonifacio Alfonso, Darío Villalba and Andrés Nagel.

Much of his large oeuvre is given over to engraving, which he approached from an experimental, self-taught perspective. His work is fully abstract and uses subtle symbolism to refer to human progress. Paradoxically, in its innate irrationality, this is eclipsed by humanity's most ambitious creation: machines. Lorenzo was called on especially to take part in joint exhibitions due to the meticulous process with which he created his pieces. His work has been shown at public exhibition venues including the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum (1992) and the Fuendetodos Goya Foundation (Fuendetodos, Zaragoza, 2004). He also took part in three editions of the Venice Biennale (1964, 1966 & 1972), the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts (1965), the International Biennial of Engraving in Krakow (1966), the Havana Biennial (1967), the Ibero-American Painting Biennial in Medellín (1968), the Krakov International Biennial (1969) and the 7th Basel International Art Fair (1976).

Frederic Montornés