RENOWNED Spanish painter Luis Martinez Torras handed away on Sunday, January 14 on the age of 111.
He leaves behind a wealthy creative legacy and a profession that noticed exhibitions in a few of Spain’s most prestigious collections.
The maestro, who has been known as “the grandfather of Galicia”, is the northern area’s oldest man.
He was fairly probably the oldest dwelling painter on the planet earlier than his demise — and was actually the oldest in Spain.
Torras was born on December 29, 1912 in Vigo, Galicia.
In 1935 on the age of 23, he moved to Madrid to review on the San Fernando College of Fantastic Arts.
His research, nonetheless, have been interrupted by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil Battle in July 1936.
Torras was again in Galicia on summer season trip when the struggle broke out and was compelled to hitch the preventing.
He survived to complete his research, however not earlier than being shot within the head, leaving him deaf.
After the struggle he painted prolifically and taught drawing on the College of Arts and Crafts of Vigo.
His works, that are usually still-lives, landscapes, or portraits, have been displayed throughout Spain, together with on the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.
A big assortment of his work may be present in his hometown’s Casa de las Artes in Vigo, along with exhibitions within the Pontevedra Museum in Pontevedra, Galicia, in addition to the Galician Museum of Up to date Artwork within the Galician capital of Santiago de Compostela.
Though impressed by cubism, the painter’s contact was uniquely his personal, having been described as each reflective of the trendy situation and evocative of basic aesthetics.
“Luis Torras makes use of a sensible language as a denial of contemporary life, opposite to what’s completed, for instance, by Edward Hopper, who displays it,” writes Galician artwork historian Carlos L. Bernardez, evaluating Torras’ work to that of the legendary American realist painter.
Drawing inspiration from the frescoes of the European masters, Torras used a comfortable, earthy color palette and thick textures over tough surfaces, a method that’s notably notable in his placing portraits and portrayals of the Spanish countryside.
“They’re works that convey an consciousness of the trendy situation, through which we understand classicism as not a easy return to the previous however a reformulation of the classical perfect sifted by way of a notion carefully linked to trendy values,” writes Bernardez within the profile printed on the painter’s web site.
Based on La Voz de Galicia, the Torras’ spouse and lifelong companion, Maria Jesus Incera, died simply months earlier than on the age of 100.
The couple lived collectively on the highest ground of the household house, and reportedly have been extremely unbiased, cooking and doing family chores till very near the tip.
His daughter-in-law, Marina, advised the paper that Torras’ secret to longevity was consuming nicely, avoiding alcohol, and virtually by no means sitting down.
“He doesn’t sit nonetheless,” she mentioned.
“He’s at all times standing.”
And naturally, his lifelong ardour for portray stored him going.
He was reportedly nonetheless studying and buying new portray methods till nicely previous his one centesimal birthday.
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