COPPER MEDAL TFP AWARDS 2002 RAFEL CANOGARID32305334
Born in Toledo in 1935, Rafael Canogar is one of Spain's most well-known contemporary painters and engravers. At the age of 15 he was accepted as a pupil by the painter Vázquez Díaz while at the same time he studied drawing at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. His classmates were Cristina de Vera and Agustín Ibarrola. During this period he painted landscapes and portraits in the style of his teacher and became interested in the work of Braque, Picasso and Miró. Around 1955 his work evolved towards informalist abstraction with a strong expressive content.
In 1957 he became a founding member of the "El Paso" group together with Manuel Millares, Antonio Saura, Luis Feito, Manuel Rivera, Pablo Serrano, Juana Francés and Antonio Suárez. He participated in the New Spanish Painting and Sculpture Exhibition held in 1960 by the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, showing his work alongside exhibitors from the young avant-garde movements. At this time he painted very gestural works in ochres, greys, whites and blacks. It was then that he began the series Personajes with which he made a timid attempt at social criticism. In the sixties he brought into his works fragments of photographs from newspaper articles and little by little the shapes would materialize into objects, faces and figures.
In 1964 he abandoned informalism once and for all and began a media-inspired phase based on the narrative chronicling of reality, with obvious political criticism using pictures of disturbances and repression. Subsequently these images acquired a third dimension and the colors were reduced to the grey and black ranges. In 1966 he was invited to Mills College in Oakland (California) as a visiting professor.
In 1975 he experienced a return to abstraction with the addition of formal elements from the cubist tradition, after which he moved on to monochromatic paintings executed on the basis of interwoven brushstrokes. From the beginning of the eighties his interest centered on the themes of still life, the Heads of Julio González and cityscapes, using planes of color combined with schematically rendered figures. In 1971 he won the Grand Prize at the Biennial Exhibition of Sao Paulo, and in 1982 obtained the National Visual Arts Award. He received the Gold Medal for Fine Arts in 2004.
| Year | 2002 |
| Diameter (mm) | 60 |
| Metal | Copper |
| Weight (g) | 123 |
| Maximum Mintage (units) | 225 |
RAFAEL CANOGAR
Born in Toledo in 1935, Rafael Canogar is one of Spain's most well-known contemporary painters and engravers. At the age of 15 he was accepted as a pupil by the painter Vázquez Díaz while at the same time he studied drawing at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. His classmates were Cristina de Vera and Agustín Ibarrola. During this period he painted landscapes and portraits in the style of his teacher and became interested in the work of Braque, Picasso and Miró. Around 1955 his work evolved towards informalist abstraction with a strong expressive content.
In 1957 he became a founding member of the "El Paso" group together with Manuel Millares, Antonio Saura, Luis Feito, Manuel Rivera, Pablo Serrano, Juana Francés and Antonio Suárez. He participated in the New Spanish Painting and Sculpture Exhibition held in 1960 by the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, showing his work alongside exhibitors from the young avant-garde movements. At this time he painted very gestural works in ochres, greys, whites and blacks. It was then that he began the series Personajes with which he made a timid attempt at social criticism. In the sixties he brought into his works fragments of photographs from newspaper articles and little by little the shapes would materialize into objects, faces and figures.
In 1964 he abandoned informalism once and for all and began a media-inspired phase based on the narrative chronicling of reality, with obvious political criticism using pictures of disturbances and repression. Subsequently these images acquired a third dimension and the colors were reduced to the grey and black ranges. In 1966 he was invited to Mills College in Oakland (California) as a visiting professor.
In 1975 he experienced a return to abstraction with the addition of formal elements from the cubist tradition, after which he moved on to monochromatic paintings executed on the basis of interwoven brushstrokes. From the beginning of the eighties his interest centered on the themes of still life, the Heads of Julio González and cityscapes, using planes of color combined with schematically rendered figures. In 1971 he won the Grand Prize at the Biennial Exhibition of Sao Paulo, and in 1982 obtained the National Visual Arts Award. He received the Gold Medal for Fine Arts in 2004.