Antonio López (Tomelloso, Ciudad Real, 1936) painter, sculptor, and draughtsman, is an outstanding figure on the Spanish artistic scene.
He began training with his uncle, the painter Antonio López Torres. In 1949, he travelled to Madrid to prepare the entrance exams for the San Fernando Fine Art School, where he studied painting between 1950 and 1955.
After completing these studies, his production featured elements from different artistic movements such as Cubism or Surrealism. These two styles recurred most often as they helped him strengthen the narrative nature of his works. From the 1960s onward, as he gained international fame after shows in Paris and New York, he began to leave the dreamscape behind and gradually develop a more objective focus. His motifs are portraits of people in their environment, interiors, still life and urban landscapes, that are used as backdrops to traditional still life and scenes with figures. His sculpting work developed in parallel to his painting and drawing, creating relief out of different materials and his first free-standing pieces.
His work features figurative representations of his most immediate environment: his family, his studio, the city where he lives.
Throughout his career, he has received important distinctions such as the Prince of Asturias Awards for Arts (1985), or the Velázquez Award for Plastic Arts (2006).