María Moreno, a simple light has gone out

The wonderful painter from Madrid, wife of the hyperrealist Antonio López, has passed away at the age of 87.

When talking about María Moreno, one has the feeling of entering a courtyard, not only because her own name invites one to do so, like those elderly ladies who have collected the fruits of their garden all their lives, but because in her paintings one understands better the light that makes the most ordinary places so special. Perhaps Vermeer. Perhaps Sorolla. But very few painters have known how to capture with a brush that minimal plasticity of the luminescence of things.

© Maria Moreno Web

She was born in Madrid in 1933, although during the Civil War she spent some years in Valencia, where she discovered other colours and the sea. When she began her studies in Fine Arts in 1954, she knew that she still had a lot to learn: she would visit Paris, give classes, and compile in her mind everything she wanted to do. When she finished her studies in 1959, the painting group was already formed: Isabel Quintanilla, Julio and Francisco López Hernández, Lucio Muñoz, Amalia Avia, Esperanza Parada and, of course, Antonio López.

'West Garden 3', Thyssen Museum 2016. Maria Moreno, VEGAP.

Amalia married Lucio. Esperanza married Julio. Isabel married Francisco. And María Moreno, Mari, married Antonio, with whom she would have her two daughters, María and Carmen. “It has been much more difficult for us than for our husbands,” Quintanilla once said. For Moreno, especially, especially because, although she and her life partner were mutual supports and pedestals on which they stood, he was the great exponent of hyperrealism in Spain. And she, a woman.

It should be added that her initial paintings were dark, gloomy, uncertain, as could be seen in her first exhibition in 1966 at the Edurne Gallery. And her production is not very extensive. It was in the 1980s, once her career was much more consolidated, with exhibitions abroad and the influence of Antonio López Torres, her husband's uncle, when she finally opened herself to the light, which would soak everything in her work.

From then on, the flowers will take on another glow, their white walls will be the antonym of the intangible, they will search in the streets and the skies for the heavenly capacity they have hidden. “I would like to put into the painting everything I want to express and I cannot do it with words. I am more of a painter of light, of well-placed shapes. The light I like to use is well suited to that fragile, weightless world that merges with the atmosphere that surrounds it.” Her words.

In June 2011, an exhibition about the master Antonio López was inaugurated at the Thyssen-Bormemiza Museum. The artist attended with María Moreno, his wife and also a great painter. I like to remember them with this delightful photograph by @GorkaLejarcegi . María has just passed away. RIP. pic.twitter.com/Wjo68yrkQ4

— MAJ (@majimeno) February 17, 2020

Her name is separated from that of her husband, being companions in adventures and separate beings, but each with their own delicacy and candor. He praises Moreno for the fact that her painting “speaks of something, refers to something that has a lot of value: purity.” , the purity of things, in an impure world.” She is the executive producer of 'La luz del membrillo', the 1992 film by Víctor Érice centered on Antonio López and in which she herself appears as a character. She will win the award of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival.

Valeriano Bozal, a renowned Spanish art historian, in his work History of Painting and Sculpture of the 20th Century in Spain, made a thorough definition of the difference between Moreno's realism and Antonio López's quasi-photography: "His subjects are very close to those of her husband: everyday scenes, plates of food, bedrooms, the back garden, etc.

"Her subjects are very close to those of her husband: everyday scenes, plates of food, bedrooms, the back garden, etc.

Valerian Muzzle

Solitude and silence also predominate, but in one aspect she differs from her husband: her gardens have blossomed. Perhaps she has given them light.