Antonio Martínez Suárez

ANTONIO MARTÍNEZ SUÁREZ (Gijón, 1923-Madrid, 2013).
Untitled, 1972.
Watercolor on paper.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 50 x 34 cm; 73 x 56 cm (frame).

Antonio Martínez Suárez, born in Gijón, showed an artistic vocation from a young age while studying to become a draughtsman. After working with the architect Álvarez Hevia and with Joaquín Rubio Camín, he began his pictorial career influenced by the Asturian artistic environment. In 1947 he held his first exhibition and, soon after, his trips to Madrid and Paris brought him closer to the avant-garde. In the French capital he met Clavé, Peinado and Domínguez, at a time when he was oscillating between figuration and abstraction. At the end of the fifties he combined painting with architectural projects and in 1957 he joined the El Paso group, which was decisive in his evolution towards gestural abstraction. His work acquired international projection with participations in the biennials of Alexandria, Venice, São Paulo and Tokyo. In the sixties and seventies his painting evolved towards an abstraction more open to real references, with greater chromatic and spatial richness. His career continued with numerous exhibitions, culminating in the first retrospectives of the eighties, such as the one at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias in 1982.