Antonio Vaquero Poblador

ANTONIO VAQUERO POBLADOR (Badajoz, 1933- 2004).
"Illuminated street", 1974.
Oil on tablex.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 66 x 55 cm; 78 x 67 cm (frame).
Antonio Vaquero Poblador was born in the bosom of a family without artistic tradition. After the Civil War, his family moved temporarily to Madrid, although they maintained close ties with their hometown, where they would settle permanently in the early 1950s. From his childhood he showed an early interest in drawing. In the beginnings of his artistic training, the Extremaduran poet Manuel Pacheco played a key role, with whom he formed a lasting friendship. Pacheco was not only an intellectual mentor, but also introduced him to the world of art, showing him the first reproductions of the impressionists through the Skira publishing house collection, in the context of the Saturday gatherings at Esperanza Segura Covarsí's house.
Vaquero received his first pictorial teachings from the painter Luis Ortiz Pizarro. Later, he began academic studies in Madrid, which he soon abandoned due to his disagreement with traditional pedagogical methods. With the approval of his family, he undertook a journey through various European countries, finding in museums his true artistic school. During this period, he also studied with the French painter Bernard Buffet, whose influence is evident in the use of somber tones and the angular definition of the silhouettes, reminiscent of the woodcut technique.
In the 1950s, he worked as a set designer for the Badajoz company "El Retablo" and began to receive public recognition. In 1956 he won his first prize for his work La niña del muñeco (The Girl with the Doll) at the First Provincial Art Exhibition organized by the Badajoz City Council, and that same year he was awarded Third Prize in the Outdoor Painting Contest of the same city.