EDUARDO NARANJO (Monesterio, Badajoz, 1944).
"Portrait of a girl", 1981.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 64 x 49 cm; 65 x 50 cm (frame).
The eighties was a period of maturity and establishment in Eduardo Naranjo's career. It was at this time that the Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid awarded him the medal for his merits as a member of its board of directors for painting and a first monograph of the author was published. This portrait of a lady is a great example of this period, as we can appreciate the author's characteristic technical quality and his unmistakable aesthetic language, in which he treats realism from a dreamlike point of view. He shows before the spectator an image taken from everyday life, but distorting certain elements, thus enriching the image, an example of which is the background with a lake in the piece, and the large drawing on the stomach of a girl.
Eduardo Naranjo began his artistic training in 1957 with his teacher Eduardo Acosta, and that same year he entered the Escuela de Artes y Oficios (School of Arts and Crafts). In 1960 he continued his studies at the Santa Isabel de Hungría School of Fine Arts in Seville, and a year later he moved to the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid, where he completed his studies. After his academic period, Naranjo decided to move to Paris, where he became deeply acquainted with the work of Picasso and artists such as Matisse. His work is defined by the technical exploration of painting, although he has also worked with sculpture and in the field of scenography. In addition, between 1986 and 1991 he made a series of engravings for the book "Poeta en Nueva York" by Federico García Lorca. Eduardo Naranjo's artistic career includes important prizes and awards, such as the Luis de Morales de Badajoz prize (1974), the Medal of Extremadura (1991), the María de Salamanca National Engraving Prize of the Museum of Contemporary Spanish Engraving (1994) and the Cross of Military Merit for his contribution to the Arts and the Army (1995). Throughout his career he has held solo exhibitions all over the world, and today he is one of the most sought-after living Spanish painters. In fact, his fame is international, being admired in countries as far away as China, where he has exhibited numerous times and has been invited to give master classes in Chinese universities. Today his work is divided between private international collections and numerous public museums, including the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Nagasaki Museum in Japan, as well as countless private collections, including the Masaveu Collection in Oviedo.