López Herrera
López Herrera was born in Madrid. Since a very early age he showed interest in the world of painting, having taken the drawing and painting course of the “Arts and Crafts School (Escuela de Artes y Oficios)” and later at the “Circle of Fine Arts (Circulo de Bellas Artes)” in Madrid.
He initiated his professional activity in advertising, having produced drawings and illustrations for several publications, magazines and books in various countries.
He also worked in the restoration of the Prado Museum (Museu del Prado) in Madrid, where he studied and experimented the techniques of the classical painters.
In 1973 he was a scholar in Rome, Florence and Venice, and in 1976 he concluded his studies in London.
López Herrera includes his work in realism (maybe even magical realism), sometimes achieving surrealism. He states that his painting is “an enormous scenario where the great theatre of the world is performed, with veils and artifices, characters and elements which, like the strings of a marionette, sustain them in the scenes”.
The author attempts to compose his paintings as retables of invented but real characters, seeking to spread a light sense of humour over the canvas, using the technique as amusement. Shaping the backgrounds with an obvious and significant existentialism and then, through enhancement elements, provoking melancholic smiles…always trying to find a profound sense of aesthetics.
López Herrera has accomplished, since 1973, various collective and individual expositions throughout Europe and the Americas, and has participated in several international art fairs, having received numerous awards such as the 1st prize in the National Medina Contest (1973), the 1st prize in the XV Jerez Painting Exposition , the 1st prize in the National Plastic Art Exposition of Valdepenas (1974), the 1st prize in the DG Fine Arts – Spring Exposition of Seville, the 1st prize in the III National Toledo Contest (1976), the Queen Sofia Special Prize – Autumn Exposition of Madrid (1983), and the 1st prize in the National Painting Contest of the City of Tudela.