DARÍO VILLALBA

He belongs to a family with a long artistic tradition. Dario Villalba studied law, philosophy, and philology but ultimately he dedicated himself to painting. He assisted classes in the Academy of San Fernando and started drawing in the Circle of Fine Arts in Madrid. He was transferred to Paris where he worked under the guidance ofAndre Lhote and in 1962 he received scholarship of the Foundation Rodriguez Acosta de Granada to study in the University of Harvard. He started painting the canvases that were later exhibited in the United States, just like his series of La Duquesa de Alba y Fosiles, torsos y huellas.

Three Torsos and a Play

He returns to Madrid, organizes an exhibition in the gallery Biosca, in the Gallery 99 of Miami and in the gallery El Bosco. His artistic work was influenced by the European Pop Art and it was at its zenith when he painted a series of Encapsulados that made him world famous. In 1973 he makes an exhibition in the XII Bienal de Sau Paulo where he gets the International Prize for Painting. The photography acquires a very important position in his work, especially the images of outcasts. He exhibits this pieces of art in the Gallery Vandres in Madrid where it gets the national and international interest. After a short period dedicated to the abstraction and represented by the series of paintings in black and white he pays more attention to imagination.

With an uninterrupted career he continues receiving prizes like the prize of Caceres for Painting (1981), the VIII International Biennial Prize for Sports in Fine Arts in Madrid (1982) and the Nacional Prize of Fine Arts of Madrid (1983).

Claudio Coello 6 28001 Madrid tel. (34) 91 435 0174 galeria@josedelamano.com