Antonio Lopez Garcia

[Dennis Aufiery]

Just Finished ANTONIO LOPEZ GARCIA, by Cheryl Brutvan

Garcia must hold the world record for "the longest time to compelte a plein air painting. Typical is GRAN VIA begun in 1974 and finished in 1981.

This book which accompanied the Boston Museum of Fine Arts exhibit of Antonio Lopez

Garcia's work in 2008 fills an important gap in contemporary realism. Lopez Garcia is certainly one of the most empathetic realists of his time, without being sentimental. We have seen little of Lopez Garcia's work
here and this book gives the first complete survey of his work. Brutvan
connects his painting to the dark mysteries and humanity of Velesques, Ribera
and Zubaran but clearly shows how contemporary he is in his images. There are
vast cityscapes, his full size open refrigerator and pencil drawing of near
empty interiors that seem to run parallel or predate Vija Clemons and Rackstraw
Downes.

It seems another book comparing his Spanish emotion with other contemporary realists, such as Lucien Freud would be in order. A truly must have for the aficionado of contemporary painting.

[James Michael Harpur]

Fantastic!